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Cajpt Putnam aiid Durkce's Esz2pe. 



LIFE AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

OP 

ISRAEL PJJTN AM, 

MAJOR-GEN-EEA). IN TiJE REVOLUTIOIIARY WAR. 



lUiistra'ed xcifh Plates, from original designs. 



BY COLONEt DAVID HUMPHREYS, 

Aid-de-camp to General Woishington, and Minister Plenipotentiary to tho 
Spanisii Court. 



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PUBLISHED BY EZllXSt&OKO. 



1S34. 






Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1833, 
by Ezra Strong, in the Clerk's ofRce of the District Court of 
the Southern District of New York. 



MEMOIRS 

OP 

^ MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM, 



Israel Putnam, who, through a regular 
^adation of promotion, became the senior Ma- 
jor-General in the army of the United States, 
and next in rank to General Washington, was 
born at Salem, Massachusetts, on the 7th day 
of January, 1718. His father. Captain Joseph 
Putnam, was the son of Mr. Joh£L Putnam, ./^^ 
who, with two brotherspcame from the south 
of Englandfand were among the first settlers 
of Salem. 

When we thus behold a person, from the 
humble walks of life, starting unnoticed in the 
career of fame, and, by an undeviating progress 
through a life of honour, arriving at the highest 
dignity in the state, curiosity is strongly ex- 
cited, and philosophy loves to trace the path of 
glory from the cradle of obscurity to the sum^ 
mit of elevation. 

Although our ancestors, the first settlers of 
this land, amidst the extreme pressure of po- 




4 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

verty and danger, early instituted schools for 
the education of youth designed for the learned 
professions, yet it was thought sufficient to in- 
struct those destined to labour on the earth, in 
reading, writing, and such rudiments of arith- 
metic as might be requisite for keeping the ac- 
counts of their little transactions with each 
other. Few farmers' sons had more advan- 
tages, none less. In this state of mediocrity it 
was the lot of young Putnam to be placed. His 
early instruction was not considerable, and the 
active scenes of life in which he was aftei wards 
engaged, prevented the opportunity of great 
literary improvement. His numerous original 
letters, though deficient in scholastic accuracy, 
always display the goodness of his heart, and 
frequently the strength of his native genius. 
He had a certain laconic mode of expression, 
and an unaffected epigrammatic turn, Aviiich 
characterized most of his writings. * 

To compensate partially for the deficiency 
of education, though nothing can remove or 
counterbalance the inconveniences experienced 
from it in public life, he derived from his pa- 
rents the source of innumerable advantages in 
the stamina of a vigorous constitution. Nature, 
liberal in bestowing^ on him bodily strength, 
hardiness, and activity, was by no means par- 
simonious in mental endowments. While we 
leave the qualities of the understanding to be 
developed in the process of life, it may not be 
ilB^roper, in this place, to designate some of UiQ 



OF MAJOH-GENIIRAL PUfNAM. 5 < 

circiinir^tanccs wliicU were calculated to distin- 
guish him afterwards as a partisan officer. 

Courage, enterprise, activity, and perseve- 
rance, were the first characteristics of his inind. 
There is a kind of mechanical courage, the 
offspring of pride, habit, or discipline, that may 
push a coward not only to perform his duty, 
but even to venture on acts of heroism. Put- 
nam's courage wa.s of a diflerent species. It 
Vv^as ever attended with a serenity of soul, .a 
clearness of conception, a degree of self-posses- 
sion, and a superiority to all the vicissitudes of 
fortune, entirely distinct from any thing that 
can be produced by the ferment of blood, and 
flutter of spirits, which not unfrequently pre- 
cipitate men to action, when stimulated by in- 
toxication or some other transient exhilaration. 
The heroic cliaracter, thus founded on consti- 
tution and animal spirits, cherished by educa- 
tion and ideas of personal freedom, confirmed 
by temperance and habits of exercise, was com- 
pleted by the dictate of reason, the love of his 
country, and an invincible sense of duty. Such 
v/ere the qualities and principles that enabled 
him to meet unappalled the shafts of adversity, 
and to pass in triumph through the furnace of 
affliction. 

His disposition was as frank and generous as 
his mind was fearless and independent. He 
disguised nothing; indeed he seemed incapable 
of (lisguise. Perhaps in the intercourse he was 
ultimately obliged to have with an artfiU world, 



* 6 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEEOIC EXPLOITS 




PUTNAM CHASTISING A BOY AT BOSTON. 



his sincerity, on some occasions, outwent his 
discretion. Although he had too much suavity 
in his nature to commence a quarrel, he had 
too much sensibility not to feel, and too much 
honour not to resent, an intended insult. The 
first time he went to Boston he was insulted for 
his rusticity by a boy of twice his size and age ; 
after bearing the sarcasms until his patience 
was worn out, he challenged, engaged, and 
vanquished his unmannerly antagonist, to the 
great diversion of a crowd of spectators. While 
a stripling, his ambition was to perform the 
labour of a man, and to excel in athletic diver- 
sions. In that rude, but masculine age, when- 
ever the village youth assembled on their usual 
occasions of festivity, pitching the bar, running, 



OF IMAJOR-GE.\EIiAL PUTNAM. 7 

leaping, and wrestling, were favoHrite amuse- 
ments. At such gymnastic exercises, in which, 
during the heroic times of ancient Greece and 
Rome, conquest was considered as the promise 
of future military fame, he bore the palm from 
almost every ring. 

Before the refinements of luxury, and the 
consequent increase of expenses, had rendered 
the maintenance of a family inconvenient or 
burdensome in America, the sexes entered into 
matrimony at an early age. Competence, at- 
tainable by all, was the limit of pursuit. After 
the hardships of making a new settlement were 
overcome, and the evils of penury removed, the 
inhabitants enjoyed, in the lot of equality, inno- 
cence, and security, scenes equally delightful 
with those pictured by the glowing imagination 
of the poets in their favourite pastoral life, or 
fabulous golden age. Indeed, the condition of 
mankind was never more enviable. Neither 
disparity of age and fortune, nor schemes of 
ambition and grandeur, nor the pride and ava- 
rice of high-minded and mercenary parents, 
interposed those obstacles to the union of con- 
genial souls, which frequently in more polished 
society, prevent, embitter, or destroy all the feli- 
city of the connubial state. Mr. Putnam, before 
he attained the twenty-first year of his age, mar- 
ried Miss Pope, daughter of Mr. John Pope, of 
Salem, by whom he had ten children. He lost 
the wife of his youth in 1764. Some time after 
he married Mrs. Gardiner, widow of the late Mr, 



7 



S LlFEj ANECDOTES; AICD HEROIC EXPLOITS 

Gardiner of Gardiner's Island, by whom he had 
no iseiie. She died in 1777. 
5 ^ In the year 1749 he removed from Salem to 
/ Pomfret, an inland, fertile town, in Connecticut, 
forty miles east of Hartford ; havina: here pur- 
chased a considerable tract of land, he applied 
himself successfully to agriculture. 

The first years on a new farm, are not how- 
ever exempt from disasters and disappoint- 
ments, which can only be remedied by stu])born 
and patient industry. Our farmer, sufiicieiilly 
occupied in building a house and barn, felliiig 
woods, making fences, sowing grain, planting 
orchards, and taking care of his stock, had to 
encounter, in turn, the calamities occasioned by 
drought in sumimer, blast in harvest, loss of 
cattle in winter, and the desolation of his sheep- 
fold by wolves. In one night he had seventy 
tine sheep and goats killed, besides many lambs 
and kids wounded. This havoc was commit- 
ted by a she wolf, which, with her annual 
whelps, had for several years infested the vi- 
cinity. The young were commonly destroyed 
by the vigilance of the hunters, but the old one 
was too sagacious to come within reach of gun- 
shot ; on being closely pursued she would ge- 
nerally fly to the western woods, and return tlie 
next winter with another litter of whelps. 

This wolf at length became such an into- 
lerable nuisance, that Mr. Putnam entered into 
a combination with five of his neighbours, to 
hunt alternately until they could destroy her. 



or MAJOR GENERAL PUTNAM. 9 

Two by rotation, were to be constantly in pur- 
suit. It was knowTi that, having lost the toes 
from one foot, by a steel trap, she made one 
track shorter than the other. By this vestige, 
the pursuers recognised, in a light snow, the 
route of this pernicious animal. Having fol- 
lowed her to Connecticut river, and found she 
had turned back in a direct course towards 
Pomfret, they immediately returned, and by ten 
o'clock the next morning the bloodhounds had 
driven her into a den, about three miles distant 
from the house of Mr. Putnam. The people 
soon collected with dogs, guns, straw, fire and 
sulphur, to attack the common enemy. With 
this apparatus several unsuccessful efforts were 
made to force her from the den. The hounds 
came back badly wounded, and refused to re- 
turn. The smoke of blazing straw had no ef- 
fect ; nor did the fumes of burnt brimstone, with 
which the cavern was filled, compel her to quit 
the retirement. Wearied with such fruitless 
attempts, which had brought the time to ten 
o'clock at night, Mr. Putnam tried once more 
to make his dog enter, but in vain; he proposed 
to his negro man to go down into the cavern 
and shoot the v/olf : the negro declined the ha- 
zardous service. Then it was that the master, 
angry at the disappointment, and declaring that 
he was ashamed to have a coward in his fami- 
ly, resolved to destroy the ferocious beast, lest, 
she should escape through some unknown fis- 
sure of the rock. His neighbours strongly r©- 
V 



10 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

monstrated against the perilous enterprise : but 
he, knowing that wild animals were intimidated 
by fire, and having provided several strips of 
birch-bark, the only combustible material which 
he could obtain, that would afford light in this 
deep and darksome cave, prepared for his descent. 
Having, accordingly, divested himself of his coat 
and waistcoat, and having a long rope fastened 
round his legs, by which he might be pulled 
back, at a concerted signal, he entered head 
foremost, with the blazing torch in his hand. 

The aperture of the den, on the east side of 
a very high ledge of rocks, is about two feet 
square ; from thence it descends obliquely fif- 
teen feet, then running horizontally about ten 
more, it ascends gradually sixteen feet towards 
its termination. The sides of this subter- 
raneous cavity are composed of smooth and 
solid rocks, which seem to have been divided 
from each other by some former earthquake. 
The top and bottom are also of stone, and the 
entrance, in winter, being covered with ice, is 
exceedingly slippery. It is in no place high 
enough for a man to raise himself upright, nor 
in any part more than three feet in width. 

Having groped his passage to the horizontal 
part of the den, the most terrifying darkness 
appeared in front of the dim circle of light af- 
forded by his torch. It was silent as the house 
of death. None but monsters of the desert had 
ever before explored this solitary mansion of 
horror. Cautiously proceeding onward, he 



OF MAJOR GENERAL PUTNAM. * 11 

came to the ascent, which he slowly mounted 
on his hands and Imees until he discovered the 
glaring eye-balls of the wolf, who was sitting at 
the extremity of the cavern. Started at the 
sight of fire, she gnashed her teeth, and gave a 
sullen growl. As soon as he had made the ne- 
cessary discovery, he kicked the rope as a signal 
for pulling him out. The people, at the mouth 
of the den, who had listened with painful anxi- 
ety, hearing the growling of the wolf, and sup- 
posing their friend to be in the most imminent 
danger, drew him forth with such celerity that 
his shirt was stripped over his head and his 
skin severely lacerated. After he had adjusted 
his clothes, and loaded his gim with nine buck- 
shot, holding a torch in one hand and the mus- 
ket in the other, he descended the second time. 
"When he drew nearer than before, the wolf, 
assuming a still more fierce and terrible appear- 
ance, howling, rolling her eyes, snapping her 
teeth, and dropping her head between her legs, 
was evidently in the attitude and on the point 
of springing at him. At the critical instant he 
levelled and fired at her head. Stunned with 
the shock, and sufibcated with the smoke, he 
immediately found himself drawn out of the 
cave. But having refreshed himself, and per- 
mitted the smoke to dissipate, he went down the 
third time. Once more he came within sight of 
the wolf, who appearing very passive, he applied 
the torch to her nose, and perceiving her dead, 
lie took hold of her ears, and th^n kicking the 



12 LIPB, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 




PUTNAM DRAGtJING THE WOLF FROM THE 
DEN. p. 12. 

rope, the people above, with no small exultation, 
dragged them both out together. 

I have offered these facts in greater detail, 
because they contain a display of character ; 
and because they have been erroneously re- 
lated in several European publications, and 
very much mutilated in the liistory of Connec- 
ticut, a work as replete with falsehood as desti- 
tute of genius, printed in London. 

Prosperity, at length, begun to attend the 
agricultural affairs of Mr. Putnam. He was 
acloiowledged to be a skilful and indefatigable 
manager. His fields were mostly enclosed with 
stone walls. His crops commonly succeeded, 
because the land was well tilled and manured. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 13 

His pastures and meadows became luxuriant. 
His cattle were of the best breed, and in good 
order. His garden and fruit-trees prolific. 
AVith the avails of the surplusage of his pro- 
duce, foreign articles were purchased. Within 
doors he found the compensation of his labours, 
in the plenty of excellent provisions, as well as 
in the happiness of domestic society. 

A more particular do£?,ription of his transi- 
tion from narrov/ to easy circumstances might 
be given ; but tlie mind that shall have acquired 
an idea of the habits of labour and simplicity, 
to which the industrioiis colonists were accus- 
tomed, will readily supply the omission. The 
effect of this gradual acquisition of property, 
generally favourable to mdividual virtue and 
public felicity, should not, however, be passed 
over in silence. If there is something fascinating 
in the charms of a country life, from the contem- 
plation of beautiful landscapes, there is likewise 
something elevating to the soul, in the con- 
sciousness of beino^ lord of the soil, and having: 
the power of creating them. The man can 
scarcely be guilty of a sordid action, or even 
descend to an ungenerous thought, Vvdio, re- 
moved from the apprehension of want, sees his 
farm daily meliorating and assuming whatever 
appearance he pleases to prescribe. This situa- 
tion conver's the farmer into a species of rural 
philosopher, by inspiring an honest pride in his 
rank as a freeman, flattering the natural pro- 
l^iisity for personal independeiicej and nou- 



14 LIFE. ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

rishing an unlimited hospitality and philan- 
thropy in his social character. 

But the time had now arrived which was to 
turn the instruments of husbandry into wea- 
pons of hostility, and to exchange the hunting 
of wolves, who had ravaged the sheep-folds, for 
the pursuit after savages, who had desolated the 
frontiers. Mr. Putnam was about thirt^r-seven 
years old, when the war between England and 
France, which preceded the last, broke out in 
America. His reputation must have been fa- 
vourably known to the government, since 
among the first troops that were levied by Con- 
necticut, in 1755, he was appointed to the com- 
mand of a company in Lyman's regiment of 
Provincials. I have mentioned his age at this 
period, expressly to obviate a prevalent opinion, 
that he was far advanced in life when he com- 
menced his military service. 

As he was extremely popular, he found no 
difficulty in enlisting his complement of recruits 
from the most hardy, enterprising, and respect- 
, able youn^ men of his neighbourhood. The 
regiment joined the army, at the opening of 
the campaign, not far distant from Crown- 
Point. Soon after his arrival at camp, he be- 
came intimately acquainted with the famous 
j)artisan Captain, afterwards Major Rogers, 
with wliom he was frequently associated in 
traversing the wilderness, reconnoitring the 
enemy 's lines, gaining intelligence, and taking 
straggling prisoners, as well as in beating up 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNA]\T. 15 

the quarters and surprising the advanced pickets 
of their army. For these operations a corps of 
ranofers was formed from tlie irre2:ulars. The 
first time Rogers and Putnam were detached-Pp::;:^ 
with a party of these hght troops, it was the^^2^ 
fortune of the latter to preserve, with his own lys-r 
hand, the hfe of the former, and to cement their_^_--^:_ 
friendship with the blood of one of their enemies. 
The object of this expedition was to obtain 
an accurate knowledge of the position and state 
of the works at Crown Point. It was imprac- 
ticable to approach with their party near enough 
for this purpose, without being discovered. 
Alone, the undertakins; was sufficiently hazard- 
ous, on account of the swarms of hostile In- 
dians who infested the woods. Our two parti- 
sans, however, left all their men at a convenient 
distance, with strict orders to continue con- ^ 
cealed until their return. Having thus cau- 
tiously taken their arrangements, they advanced 
with the profoundest silence in the evening -^ 
and lay, during the night, contiguous to the 
fortress. Early in the morning they approached 
so close as to be able to give satisfactory in- 
formation to the General who had sent them, 
on the several points to which their attention 
had been directed : but Captain Rogers, being 
at a little distance from Captain Putnam, for- ' 
tuitously met a stout Frenchman, who instantly 
seized his fusee with one hand, and with the 
other attempted to stab him, while he called to 
an adjacent guard for assistance. The guard 



16 LIFE, ANECDOTE.^; AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

answered. Putnam, perceiving the imminent 
danger of his friend, m\d that no time Avas to be 
lost, or farther alarm given by firing, ran ra- 
^pidly to tliem, while they Vv^ere yet struggling, 
and with the but-end of his piece laid the 
^ Frenchman dead at his feet. The partisans, to 
elude pujsuit, precipitated tJieir flight, joined 
the party, and returned without loss to the en- 
campment. Not many occasions occurred for 
partisans to display their talents in the course 
of this summer. The war was checkered with 
various fortune in diflerent quartcrs-^such as 
the total defeat of General Braddock, and the 
splendid victory of Sir William Johnson over 
the French troops, commanded by the Baron 
Dieskau. The brilliancy of this success, Avas 
^ necessary to console the i^mericans for the dis- 
^g^ grace of that disaster. Tlie time for which the 
^^^ colonial troops engaged to serve terminated 
^ ^ with the campaign. Putnam was re-appointed, 
rj-j-' and agTiin took the field in 1756. 
— Few are so ignorant of war as not to know, 
that military advent ares, in the night, are al- 
ways extremely liable to accidents. Captain 
Putnam, having been commanded to reconnoi- 
tre the enemy's camp at the Ovens near Ticon- 
deroga. took the brave Lieutenant Robert Dur- 
kee as his companion. In attempting to exe- 
cute these orders, he narrov/ly mjssed being 
taken himself in the first instance, and killing 
Jiis friend in the second. It was customary for 
the British and Provincial troor)s to DJace their 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 17 

fires round their camp, which frequently ex- 
posed them to the enemy's scouts and patroles. 
A contrary practice, then unknown in the En- 
glish army, prevailed among the French and < 
Indians. The plan Avas much more rational ; 
they kept their tires in the centre, lodged their 
men circularly at a distance, and posted their 
sentinels in the surrounding darkness. Our 
partisans approached the camp, and supposing 
the sentries were within the circle of fires, crept 
upon their hands and knees with the greatest 
possible caution, until, to their utter astonish- 
ment, they found themselves in the thickest of 
the enemy. The sentinels, discovering them, 
fired, and slightly wounded Durkee in the thigh. 
He and Putnam had no alternative. They fled. 
The latter, being foremost, and scarcely able to 
see his hand before him, soon plunged into a 
clay-pit. Durkee, almost at the identical mo- 
ment, came tumbling after. Putnam, by no 
means pleased at finding a companion, and be- 
lieving him to be one of the enemy, lifted his 
tom.ihawk to give the deadly blow, when Dur- 
kee, who had followed so closely as to know 
him, inquired whether he had escaped unhurt. 
Captain Patnam instantly recognising his voice, 
dropped his weapon : and both, springing from 
the pit, made good their retreat to the neigh- 
bouring ledges, amidst a shower of random shot. 
There they betook themselves to a large log, by 
the side of which they lodged the remainder of 
the night. Before they lay do\vn, Captain Put 



IS LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 




CAPT. PUTNAM A.MJ JLIEUT. JULlilvEE S ESCAPE. 

p. 17. 

nam said he had a Uttle rum in his canteen, 
which could never be more acceptable or neces- 
sary ; but on examining the canteen, which 
hung under his arm, he found the enemy had 
pierced it with their balls, and that there was 
not a drop of liquor left. The next day he 
found fourteen bullet holes in his blanket. 

In the same summer, a body of the enemy, 
consisting of six hundred men, attacked the 
baggage and provision wagons at a place called 
the half-way-brook ; it being equi-distant from 
Fort Edward, and the south end of Lake 
George. Having killed the oxen, and plundered 
the wagons, they retreated with their booty, 
without having met with such resistance ^a 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 1^ 

might have been expected from the strength of 
the escort. General Webb, on receiving intel- 
hgence of this disaster, ordered the Captains 
Putnam and Rogers " to take one hundred 
volunteers in boats, with two wall-pieces and 
two blunderbusses, and to proceed down Lake 
George to a certain point ; there to leave the 
batteaux under a proper guard, and thence to 
cross by land, so as to harass, and, if practica- 
ble, intercept the retreating enemy at the nar- 
rows." These orders were executed with so 
much punctuality, that the party arrived at the 
destined place half an hour before the hostile 
boats came in view. Here they waited, under 
cover, until the enemy entered the narrows, with 
their batteaux loaded with plunder. Then the 
volunteers poured on them volley after volley, 
killed many of the oarsmen, sunk a number of 
their batteaux, and v/ould soon have destroyed 
the whole body of the enemy, had not the un- 
usual precipitancy of their passage carried them 
through the narrows into the wide part of 
South Bay, where they were out of the reach 
of musket-shot. The shattered remnant of the 
little fleet soon arrived at Ticonderoga, and 
gave information that Putnam and Rogers were 
at the narrows. A fresh party was instantly 
detached to cut them in pieces, on their return 
to Fort Edward. Our partisans, sensible of 
the probability of such an attempt, and being 
full twenty miles from their boats, strained 
every nerv^e to reach them as soon as possi- 



20 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

ble ; which they effected the same night. Next 
day, when they had returned as far as Sabbath- 
Day point, they discovered, on shore, the be- 
forementioned detachment of three hundred 
men, who had passed them in the night, and 
who now, on perceiving our party, took to their 
boats with the greatest alacrity, and rowed out 
to give battle. They advanced in line, main- 
taining a good mien, and felicitating themselves 
upon the prospect of an easy conquest, from the 
great superiority of their numbers. Flushed 
Avith these expectations, they were permitted to 
come within pistol-shot before a gun was fired. 
At once, the wall-pieces and blunderbusses, 
which had been brought to rake them in the 
most vulnerable point, were discharged. As no 
such reception had been foreseen, the assailants 
were thrown into the utmost disorder. Their 
terror and confusion were greatly increased by 
a well-directed and most destructive fire of the 
small arms. The larger pieces being reloaded, 
without annoyance, continued alternately with 
the musketry to make dreadful havoc, until the 
rout was completed, and the enemy driven back 
to Ticonderoga. In this action, one of the 
bark canoes contained twenty Indians, of whom 
fifteen were killed. Great numbers, from other 
boats, both of French and Indians, were seen to 
fall overboard: but the account of their total 
loss could never be ascertained. Rogers and 
Putnam had but one man killed, and two 
slightly wounded. They now landed on th« 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 21 

point, and having refreshed their men at leisure, 
returned in good order to the British camp. 

Soon after these rencounters, a singular kind 
of race was run by our nimble-footed Provincial 
and an active young Frenchman. The liberty 
of each was by turns at stake. General Webb, 
waiiting a prisoner for the sake of intelligence, 
sent Capt. Putnam, with five men, to procure 
one. The Captain concealed himself near the 
road which leads from Ticonderoga to the 
Ovens. His men seemed fond of showing 
themselves, which unsoldier-like conduct he pro- 
hibited with the severest reprehension. This 
rebuke they imputed to unnecessary fear. The 
observation is as true as vulgar, that persons 
distinguishable for temerity, when there is no 
apparent danger, are generally poltroons when- 
ever danger approaches. They had not lain 
long in the high grass, before a Frenchman and 
an Indian passed — the Indian was considerably 
in advance. As soon as the former had gone 
by, Putnam, relying on the fidelity of his men, 
sprang up, ran, and ordered them to follow. 
After running about thirty rods, he seized the 
Frenchman by the shoulders, and forced him 
to surrender : But his prisoner, looking roimd, 
perceiving no other enemy, and knowing the 
Indian would be ready in a moment to assist 
him, began to make an obstinate resistance. 
Putnam, finding himself betrayed by his men 
into a perilous dilemma, let go his hold, stepped 
back, and snapped his piece, which was levelled 



22 LIFE. ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

at the Frenchman's breast. It missed fire. On 
this he thought it most prudent to retreat. The 
Frenchman, in turn, chased him back to his 
men, who, at last, raised themselves from the 
grass ; which his pursuer espying in good time 
for himself, made his escape. Putnam, mortified 
that these men had frustrated his success, dis- 
missed them with disgrace ; and not long after 
accomplished his object. Such little feats, as the 
capture of a single prisoner, may be of infinitely 
more consequence than some, who are unac- 
quainted with military afiairs, would be apt to 
imagine. In a country covered with woods, like 
that part of America, then the seat of war, the 
difficulty of procuring, and the importance of 
possessing good intelligence, can scarcely be con- 
ceived even by European commanders. They, 
however, who know its vahie, will not appre- 
ciate lightly the services of an able partisan. 

Nothing worthy of remark happened during 
this campaign, except the loss of Oswego. That 
fort, which had been built by General Shirley, 
to protect the peltry trade, cover the country on 
the Mohawk river, and facilitate an invasion of 
Canada, by Frontenac and Niagara, fell into 
the hands of the enemy, with a garrison of six- 
teen hundred men, and one hundred pieces of 
cannon. 

The active services of Captain Putnam on 
every occasion attracted the admiration of the 
public, and induced the Legislature of Connec- 
ticut to promote him to a majority in 1767. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 23 

Lord Loudon was then Commander-in-Chief 
of the British forces in*America. The expe- 
dition against Crown Point, which from the 
commencement of hostihties had been in con- 
templation, seemed to give place to a more im- 
portant operation that was meditated against 
Louisbourg. But the arrival of the Brest 
squadron at that place prevented the attempt ; 
and the loss of Fort William Henry served to 
class this with the two former unsuccessful 
campaigns. It was rumoured, and partially 
credited at the time, that General Webb, who 
commanded in the northern department, had 
early intimation of the movement of the French 
army, and might have effectually succoured the 
garrison. The subsequent iacts will place the 
affair in its proper light. ^ 

A few days before yae siege. Major Putnam, ,^ 
with two hundred men, escorted General Webb '•***' 
from Fort Edward to Fort W^illiam Henry. 
The object was to examine the state of this 
fortification, which stood at the southern ex- 
tremity of Lake George. Several abortive at- . 
tempts havhig been made by ^ ajor Roger^nd 2 '^ 
others in the night season, Major Putnam pro- '-/ '"^^^' 
posed to go down the lake in open day -light, tc^i^-^ 
land at Northwest Bay, and tarry on shore until 
he could make satisfactory discovery of the 
enemy's actrial situation at Ticonderpga and 
the adjacent posts. The plan which he sug- 
gested, of landing with only five men, and send- 
ing back the ^ boats, to preyent detection, was ^ / ^ 



S4 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

deemed too hazardous by the General. At 
leno:th, however, he was permitted to proceed 
with eighteen vohinteers, in three whale boats ; 
but before he arrived at Northwest Bay, he dis- 
covered a body of men on an island. Imme- 
diately he left two boats to fish at a distance, 
that they might not occasion an alarm, and re- 
turned with the information. The General, 
seeing him rowing back with great velocity, in 
a single boat, concluded the others v/ere cap- 
tured, and sent a skiff, with orders for him alone 
to come on shore. After advising the General of 
the circumstances, he urged the expediency of 
returning to make farther discoveries, and bring 
off the boats. Leave was reluctantly given. He 
found his people, and, passing still onward, dis- 
Jtc' covered by the aid of a good perspective glass, 
^i^-a large army in motion^ By this time, several 
of the advanced canoes had nearly surrounded 
^^ him, but by the swiftness of his whaleboats, he 
escaped through the midst of them. On his 
return he informed the General minutely of all 
he had seen, and intimated his conviction that 
the expedition-^nust obviously be destined 
against Fort William Henry. That command- 
er, strictly enjoining silence on the subject, di- 
rected him to put his men under an oath of 
secrecy, and to prepare, without loss of time, to 
return to the head-quarters of the army. Major 
Putnam observed, he " hoped his excellency did 
not intend to neglect so fair an opportunity of 
giving battle, should the enemy presume to 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 25 

land." " What do you think we should do 
here ?" replied the General. Accordingly, the 
next day he returned, and the day after Colonel 
Monro was ordered from Fort Edward, with 
his regiment, to re-enforce the garrison. That 
officer took with him all his rich baggage and 
camp equippage, notwithstanding Major Put- 
nam's advice to the contrary. The day follow- 
ing his arrival, the enemy landed, and besieged 
the place. 

The Marquis de Montcalm, Commander-in- 
Chief for the French in Canada, intending to 
take advantage of the absence of a large pro- 
portion of the British force, which he under- 
stood to be employed imder Lord Loudon 
against Louisbourg, had asseml^led whatever 
men could be spared from Ticonderoga, Crown- 
Point, and the other garrisons : with these he 
had combined a considerable corps of Cana- 
dians, and a larger body of Indians than had 
ever before been collected; making in the whole 
an army of nearly eight thousand men. Our 
garrison consisted of twenty-five hundred, and 
was commanded by Colonel Monro, a very gal- 
lant officer, who found the means of sending 
express after express to GenerSl Webb, with an 
account of his situation, and the most pressing 
solicitation for succour. In the mean time, the 
army at Fort Edward, which originally amount- 
ed to about four thousand, had been consider- 
ably augmented by Johnson's troops and the 
militia. On the eighth or ninth day after the 



26 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

landing of the French, General Johnson, in con- 
sequence of repeated apphcations, was suffered 
to march for the rehef of the garrison, with all 
the provincials, militia, and Putnam's rangers ; 
but before they had proceeded three miles, the 
order was countermanded, and they returned. 
M. de Montcalm informed Major Putnam, when 
a prisoner in Canada, that one of his running 
Indians saw and reported this movement ; and, 
upon being questioned relatively to the num- 
bers, answered in their figurative style, " If you 
can count the leaves on the trees, you can count 
themP In effect, the operations of the siege 
were suspended, and preparations made for re- 
embarking, when another of the runners re- 
ported that the detachment had gone back. 
The Marquis de MontcaJm, provided with a 
good train of artillery, meeting with no annoy- 
ance from the British army, and but inconsi- 
derable interruption from the garrison, accele- 
rated his approaches so rapidly, as to obtain 
possession of the fort in a short time after com- 
pleting the investiture. An intercepted letter 
from General Webb, advising the surrender, 
was sent into the fort to Colonel Monro by the 
French general.^ 

The garrison engaged not to serve for eigh- 
teen months, and were permitted to march out 
with the honours of war. But the savages re- 
garded not the capitulation, nor could they be 
restrained by the utmost exertion of the com- 
Wianding officer, from committing the most out- 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 27 

rageous acts of cruelty. They stripped and 
plundered all the prisoners, and murdered great 
numbers in cold blood. Those who escaped 
by flight, or the protection of tl;^e French, ar- 
rived in a forlorn condition at Fort Edward. 
Among these was the commandant of the gar- 
rison. 

The day succeeding this deplorable scene of 
carnage and barbarity, Major Putnam having 
been despatched with his rangers, to watch the 
motions of the enemy, came to the shore, when 
their rear was scarcely beyond the reach of 
musket-shot. They had carried off all the 
cannon, stores, and water-craft. The fort was 
demolished. The barracks, the out-houses, and 
suttlers' booths, were heaps of ruins. The tires, 
not yet extinct, and the smoke, offensive from 
the mucilaginous nature of the fuel, but illy 
concealed innumerable fragments of human 
skulls and bones, and, in some instances, car- 
casses half consumed. Dead bodies, Aveltering 
in blood, were every where to be seen, violated, 
with all the wanton mutilations of savage in- 
genuity. More than one hundred women, 
some with their brains still oozing from the 
battered heads, others with .their whole hair 
wrenched collectively with the skin from the 
bloody skulls, and many, with their throats cut, 
most inhumanly stabbed and butchered, lay 
stripped entirely naked, with their bowels torn 
out, and afforded a spectacle too horrible for 
iJescription. 



28 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

Not long after this misfortune, General Ly- 
man succeeded to the command of Fort Ed 
ward. He resolved to strengthen it. For this 
purpose, one hundred and fifty men were em- 
ployed in cutting timber. To cover them, 
Captain Little was posted with fifty British re- 
gulars, at the head of a thick swamp, about one 
hundred rods eastward of the fort, to which 
his communication lay over a tongue of land, 
formed on the one side by the swamp, and by 
a creek on the other. 

One morning, at daybreak, a sentiuel saw 
indistinctly several birds, as he conceived, come 
from the swamp, and fly over him with incredi- 
ble swiftness. While he was ruminatino^ on 
these wonderful birds, and endeavouring to 
form some idea of their colour, shape, and size, 
an arrow buried itself in the hmb of a tree just 
above his head. He now discovered the qua- 
lity and design of these winged messengers of 
fate, and gave the alarm. Instautly the work- 
ing party began to retreat along the defile. A 
large body of savages had concealed themselves 
in the morass before the guard was posted, and 
were attempting in this way to kill the sentinel 
without noise, with design to surprise tlie whole 
party. Finding the alarm given, they rushed 
from the covert, shot and tomahawked those 
who were nearest at hand, and pressed hard 
on the remainder of the unarmed fugitives. 
Captain Little marched to their relief, and, by 
pouring on the Indians a well-timed fire, checked 



(%l.5E* 



OF MAJOR-GENf^RAL PUTXAIM. 29 

the pursuit, and enabled sucli of the fatigue- 
men as did not fall in the first onset, to retire to 
the fort. Thither he sent for assistance, his 
httle party being ahuost overpowered by num- 
bers. But the commandant, imagining that the 
main body of the enemy were approaching for 
a general assault, called in his outposts, and 
shut tlie gates. 

Major Putnam lay, with his rangers, on an /Tiy 
island adjacent to the fort. Having heard the —l—^- 
musketry, and learned that his friend Captain ^ ^^ 
Little was in the utmost peril, he plunged into '^-a5 
the river at the head of his corps, and waded / 

through the water towards the place of engage- '" ^ 
ment. This brought him so near to the fort, 
that General Lyman, apprized of his design, 
and unwilling that the lives of a few more 
brave men should be exposed to what he deemed 
inevitable destruction, mounted the parapet, and 
ordered him to proceed no farther. The major 
only took time to make the best short apology he 
could, and marched onward. This is the only 
instance, in the whole course of. his military 
service, wherein he did not pay the strictest 
obedience to orders ; and in this instance his 
motive was highly commendable. But when 
such conduct, even if sanctified by success, is 
passed over with impunity, it demonstrates that 
all is not right in the military system. In a 
disciplined army, such as that of the United 
States became under General Washington, an 
officer guilty of a slighter violation of orders, 



30 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 




MAJ. PUTNAM GOING TO CAPT, LITTLE'S AS- 
SISTANCE. — 29. 



however elevated in rank or meritorious in ser- 
vice, would have been brought before the bar 
of a court martial. Were it not for the seduc- 
tive tendency of a brave man's example, I 
might have been spared the mortification of 
making these remarks on the conduct of an 
officer, whose distinguishing characteristics 
were promptitude for duty and love of subor- 
dination, as well as cheerfulness to encounter 
every species of ditficulty and danger. 

The rangers of Putnam soon opened their 
way for a junction with the little handful of 
regulars, who still ol^stinately maintained their 
ground. By his advice, the whole rushed im- 
petuously with shouts and huzzas into the 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 31 

swamp. The savages fled on every side, and 
were chased, with no inconsiderable loss on 
their part, so long as the day-light lasted. On 
ours, only one man was killed in the pursuit. 
His death Vv^as immediately avenged by that of 
the Indian who shot him. This Indian was 
one of the runners, a chosen bodjr of active 
young men, w^lio are used not only to procure 
intelligence and convey tidings, but also to 
guard the rear on a retreat. 

Here it will not be unseasonable to mention 
some of the customs in war peculiar to the 
aborigines, Avhich on the present as well as 
other occasions, they put in practice. When- 
ever a retreating, especially a flying party, had 
gained the summit of a rising ground, they se- 
creted one or two runners behind trees, copses, 
or bushes, to fire at the enemy on their ascend- 
ing the hill. This commonly occasioned the 
enemy to halt and form for battle. In the in- 
terim the runners used such dexterity as to be 
rarely discovered, or if discovered, they vanished 
behind the height, and rejoined their brother 
warriors, who, having thus stolen a distance, 
were oftentimes seen by their pursuers no more. 
Or if the pursuers were too eager, they seldom 
failed to atone for their rashness by falling into 
an ambuscade. The Mohawks, who were af- 
terwards much employed in scouts under the 
orders of Major Putnam, and who were per- 
fectly versed in all the wiles and stratagems of 
their countrymen, showed him the mode of 



9 



32 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

avoiding the evils of either aUernative. In 
suspicious thickets, and at the borders of every 
considerable eminence, a momentary pause was 
made, while they, in different parts, penetrated 
or ascended with a cautiousness that cannot be 
easily described. They seemed all eye and 
ear. When they found no lurkintif mischief, 
they would beclvon with the hand, and pro- 
nounce the word " Owisb," witli a lono- labial 
hissing, the O being almost quiescent. This 
was ever the watchword for the main body to 
advance. 

Indians who went to war together, and who, 
for any reason, found it necessary to separate 
into different routes, always left two or three 
runners at the place of separation, to give timely 
notice to either party in case of pursuit. 

If a warrior chanced to straggle and lose 
himself in the woods, or be retarded by accident 
or wound, the party luissins; him would fre- 
quently, on their march, break down a bush or 
a shrub, and leave the top pointing in the direc- 
tion they had gone, that the straggler, when he 
should behold it, might shape his course ac- 
cordingly. 

We come to the campaign when General 
Abercrombie took the command at Fort Ed- 
ward. That general ordered Major Putnam, 
with sixty men, to proceed by land to South 
Bay, on Lake George, for the purpose of making 
discoveries, and intercepting the eneiixy's par- 
ties. The latter, in compliance with these or- 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 33 

ders, posted himself at Wood Creek, near its 
entrance into South Bay. On this bank, which 
forms a jutting precipice ten or twelve feet 
above the water, he erected a stone parapet 
thirty feet in length, and masked it with young 
pine-trees, cut at a distance, and so artfully 
planted as to imitate the natural growth. 
Hence he sent back fifteen of his men, who had 
fallen sick. Distress for want of provisions, 
occasioned by the length of march, and time 
spent on this temporary fortification, compelled 
him to deviate from a rule he had established, 
never to permit a gun to be fired but at an ene- 
my while on a scout. He was now obliged to 
shoot a buclc, which had jumped into the creek, 
in order to eke out their scanty subsistence until 
the fourth day after the completion of the works. 
About ten o'clock that evening,' one of the men 
on duty at the margin of the bay, informed him 
that a fleet of bark canoes, filled with men, was 
steering towards the mouth of the creek. He 
immediately called in all his sentinels, and or- 
dered every man to his post. A profound still- 
ness reigned in the atmosphere, and the full 
moon shone with uncommon brightness. The 
creek, which the enemy entered, is about six 
rods wide, and the bank opposite to the parapet 
above twenty feet high. It was intended to 
permit the canoes in front to pass — they had 
accordingly just passed, when a soldier acci- 
dentally struck his firelock against a stone. 
The commanding officer in the van canoe heard 
2* ° 



34 LIFE, ANECDOTES. AND HEROIC EXPL0IT3 

the noise, and repeated several times the savage 
watch-word, — Owish ! Instantly the canoes 
huddled together, with their centre precisely in 
front of the works, covering the creek for a 
considerable distance above and below. The 
officers appeared to be in deep consultation, and 
the fleet on the point of retarning, when Major 
Putnam, who had ordered Iiis men in tlie most 
peremptory manner not to fire until lie sliould 
set the example, gave the signal, by discharging 
his piece. They fired. Kotliing could exceed 
the inextricable confusion and apparent con- 
sternation occasioned by this well-concerted 
attack. But, at last, the enemy findhig, from 
the unfrequency in the firing, that the number 
of our men must be small, resolved to land be- 
low and surround them. Putnam, apprehen- 
sive of this from the movement, sent Lieutenant 
Robert Durliee, with twelve men, a.bout thirty 
rods down the creek, v/ho arrived in time to 
repulse the party which attempted to land. 
Another small detachment, under Lieutenant 
^Parsons, was ordered up the creek to prevent 
any similar a,ttempt. In the mean time, Major 
Putnam kept up, through tlie whole night, an 
incessant and deadly fire on the main body of 
the enemy, without receiving any thing in re- 
turn but shot void of effect, accompanied with 
dolorous groans, miserable shrieks, and dismal 
savage yells. After daybreak, he was ad\rised 
that one part of the enemy had effected a land- 
ing considerably below, and were rapidly ad- 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 35 

vanciiig to cut off his retreat. Apprised of the 
great superiority still opposed to him, as well as 
of the situation of his own soldiers, some of 
whom were entirely destitute of ammunition, 
and the rest reduced to one or two rounds each, 
he commanded them to swing their packs. By 
hastening the retreat, in good order, they had 
just time to retire far enough up the creek to 
prevent being enclosed. During this long-con- 
tinued action, m which the Americans had 
slain at least five times their own number, only 
one Provincial and one Indian were wounded 
on their side. These unfortunate men had 
been sent off for camp in the night, with two 
men to assist them, and directions to proceed 
by Wood-Creek as the safest, though not the 
shortest route. But having taken a nearer way, 
they were pursued and overtaken by the In- 
dians, who, from the blood on the leaves and 
bushes, believed that they were on the trail of 
our whole party. The wounded, despairing of 
mercy, and unable to fly, insisted that the well 
soldiers should make their escape, which, on a . 
moment's deliberation, they effected. The Pro- 
vincial, Vv^hose thigh was broken by a ball, on 
the approach of the savages, fired his piece, and 
killed three of them ; after which he was 
quickly hacked in pieces. The Indian, how- 
ever, was saved alive. This man Major Put- 
nam saw afterwards in Canada, where he like- 
wise learned that his enemy, in the rencounter at 
Wood-Creek, consisted of five hundred Freach 



36 LIFE, ANECDOTESj AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

and Indians, under the command of the cele- 
brated partisan Molang, and that no party, since 
the war, had suffered so severely, as more than 
one half of those Avho went out never returned. 

Our brave little company, reduced to forty in 
number, had proceeded along the bank of the 
creek about an hour's march, when Major Put- 
nam, being in front, was fired on by a party just 
at hand. He, rightly appreciating the advan- 
tage often obtained by assi.miing a bold counte- 
nance on a critical occasion, in a stentoropho- 
nic tone, ordered his men to rush on tlie enemy, 
and promised that tliey shoidd soon give a good 
account of them. It proved to be a scout of 
Provincials, who conceived they were firing 
upon the French ; but the commanding officer, 
knowing Putnam's voice, cried out, that they 
were all friends. Upon this the Major told him 
abruptl^r, that, " friends or enemies, they all de- 
served to be hanged for not killing more when 
they had so fair a shot." In fact, but one man 
was mortally wounded. While these things 
were transacted, a faithful soldier, whose am- 
munition had been nearhr exhausted, made his 
way to the fort, and gave such information, that 
General Lyman was detached with five hun- 
dred men to cover the retreat. Major Putnam 
met them at only twelve miles distance from 
the fort, to which they returned the next day. 

In the winter of 1757,*vvhen Colonel Havi- 
land was commandant at Fort Edward, the 
barracks adjoining to the northwest bastion 



-/^//^idU^^V/^, 



OF MAJOR-&ENER 



AL PUTNAM. 37 





^^^z5&t - —^ ^'- -— " -^ - 

"" 'pUTNATvrSA\^S THE MAGAZINE.— P- 37. 

took fire They extended within twelve feet of 
the magazine, which contained three hundred 
barrels^of powder. On its first discovery, the 
fire rao-ed with great violence. The command- 
ant endeavoured, in vain, by discharging some 
pieces of lieavv artillery against the supporters 
of this flight of barracks, to level them ^ylth the 
around. Putnam arrived from the island where 
he was stationed at the moment when the blaze 
approached that end which was contiguous to 
the magazine. Instantly a vigorous attempt was 
made to extinguish the conflagration. A way 
was opened by a postern gate to the river, and 
the soldiers were employed in bringing water ; 
which he, having mounted on a ladder to the 
eaves of the building, received and threw on 



38 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

the flame. It continued, notwithstanding their 
utmost efforts, to gain on them. He stood, en- 
veloped in smoke, so near the sheet of fire, that 
a pair of thick blanket mittens were burnt en- 
tirely from his hands ; he was supplied with 
another pair dipped in water. Colonel Havi- 
land, fearing that he would perish in the flames, 
called to him to comedown. But he entreated 
that he might be suflered to remain, since de- 
struction must inevitably ensue if their exer- 
tions should be remitted. The gallant com- 
mandant, not less astonished than charmed at 
the boldness of his conduct, forbade any more 
effects to be carried out of the fort, animated the 
men to redoubled diligence, and exclaim.ed, "if 
v/e must be blown up, we v.dll go altogether." 
At last, when the barracJvS were seen to be tum- 
bling, Putnam descended, placed himself at the 
interval, and continued from an incessant rota- 
tion of replenished buckets to pour water on the 
magazine. The outside planks were already 
consumed by the proximity of the fire, and as 
only one thickness of timber intervened, the 
trepidation now became general and extreme. 
Putnam, still undaunted, covered with a cloud 
of cinders, and scorched with the intensity of 
the heat, maintained his position until the fire 
subsided, and the dang-er was wholly over. He 
had contended for one hour and a half with that 
terrible element. His legs, his thighs, his arms, 
and his face were blistered ; and when he pulled 
off his second pair of mittens, the skin from his 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 39 

liands and fingers followed them. It was a 
month before he recovered. The commandant, 
to whom his merits had before endeared him, 
could not stifle the emotions of gi-atitude, due to 
the man who had been so instrumental in pre- 
serving the magazine, the fort, and the garrison. 
The repulse before Ticonderoga took place 
in 1758- General Abercrombie, the British 
commander in chief in America, conducted the 
expedition. His army, which amounted to 
nearly sixteen thousand regulars and provin- 
cials, was amply supplied with artillery and 
military stores. This well-appointed corps 
passed over Lake Gaorge, and landed, without 
opposition, at the point of destination. The 
troops advanced in columns. Lord Howe, 
liaving Major Putnam with him, was in front 
of the centre. A body of about five hundred 
men, the advance or pickets of the French ar- 
my, which had fled at first, began to skirmish 
with our left. " Putnam," said Lord Howe, 
*' what means that firing ?" " I know not, but, 
with your lordship's leave, will see," replied the 
former. " I will accompany you/' rejoined the 
gallant young nobleman. In vain did Major 
Putnam attempt to dissuade him by saying— 
'• My lord, if I am killed, the loss of my hfe will 
be of little consequence, but the preservation of 
yours is of infinite importance to this army." 
The only answer was, " Putnam, your life is as 
dear to you as mine is to me ; I am determined, 
to ffo." One hundred of the van, under Major 



40 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

Putnam, filed off with Lord Howe. They soon 
met tlie left flanli of the enemy's advance, by 
whose first fire his lordship fell. — It was a loss 
indeed ; and particularly felt in the operations 
which occurred three days afterwards. His 
manners and his virtues had made him the idol 
of the army. From.his first arrival in America, 
he had accommodated himself* and his res^i- 
ment to the peculiar nature of the service. Ex- 
emplary to the officer, a friend to the soldier, 
the model of discipline, he had not failed to en- 
counter every hardship and hazard. Nothing 
could be more calculated to inspire men with 
the rash animation of rage, or to temper it with 
the cool perseverance of revenge, than the sight 
of such a hero, so beloved, fallen in his coun- 
try's cause. It had the eifect. Putnam's party, 
having cut their way obliquely through the 
enemy's ranks, and having been joined by 
Captain D'Ell, with twenty men, together with 
some other small parties, charged them so fu- 
riously in rear, that nearly three hundred were 
killed on the spot, and one hundred and forty- 
eight made prisoners. 

In the mean time, from the unskilfulness of 
the guides, some of our columns were bewil- 
dered. The left wing, seeing Putnam's party 
in their front, advancing over the dead bodies 
towards them, commenced a brisk and heavy 

♦ He cut his hair short, and induced the regiment to follow 
the example. He fashioned their clothing for the activity of 
iervice, and divested himeelf and them of every article (^ s«- 
p«rfki<Hi8 baggage 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 4.1 

fire, which killed a sergeant and several pri- 
vates. Nor could they, by sounds or signs, be 
convinced of their mistake, until Major Put- 
nam, preferring the probable loss of his own 
life to the loss of the lives of his brave asso- 
ciates, ran through the midst of the flying balls, 
and prevented the impending catastrophe. 

The tender feelings which Major Putnam 
possessed, taught him to respect an unfortunate 
foe, pjid to strive, by every lenient art in his 
power, to alleviate the miseries of war. For 
this purpose, he remained on the field until it 
began to grow dark, employed in collecting 
such of the enemy as were left wounded, to one 
place ; he gave them all the liquor and little 
refreshments which lie could procure ; he fur- 
nished to each of them a blanket ; he put three 
blankets under a French sergeant who was 
badly wounded through the body, and placed 
him in an easy posture by the side of a tree : 
the poor fellow could only squeeze his hand 
with an expressive grasp. " Ah," said Major 
Putnam, " depend on it, my brave soldier, you 
shall be brought to the camp as soon as possi- 
ble, and the same care shall be taken of you as 
if you were my brother." The next morning 
Major Rogers was sent to reconnoitre the field, 
and to bring off the wounded prisoners; but 
finding the wounded unable to help themselves, 
in order to save trouble, he despatched every 
one of them to the world of spirits. Putnam's 
was not the only heart that bled. The Proviii- 



ASi LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

cial and British officers, who became acquainted 
with the fact, were struck with inexpressible 
horror. 

Ticonderosfa is surrounded on three sides by- 
water ; on the fourth, for some distance, ex- 
tends a dangerous morass ; the remainder was 
then fortified with a hue eight feet high, and 
planted with artillery. For one hundred yards 
in front the plain was covered Vvdth great trees, 
cut for the purpose of defence, Avhose inter- 
woven and sharpened branches projected out- 
wards. Notwithstanding these impediments, 
the engineer wlio had been employed to recon- 
noitre, reported as his opinion, that the works 
might be carried with musketry. The difficulty 
and delay of dragging the battering cannon 
over grounds almost impracticable, induced the 
adoption of this fatal advice, to which, however, 
a rumour that the garrison, already consisting 
of four or five thousand men, was on the point 
of being augmented with three thousand more, 
probably contributed. The attack was as spi- 
rited in execution as ill-judged in design. The 
assailants, after having been for more than four 
hours exposed to a most fatal fire, without 
making any impression by their reiterated and 
obstinate proofs of valour, were ordered to re- 
treat. Major Putnam, who had acted as' an aid 
in bringing the Provincial regiments succes- 
sively to action, assisted in preserving order. 
It was said that a great number of the enemy 
V«r9 aiiot in the head, every other part having 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 43 

been concealed behind their works. The loss 
on our side was upwards of two thousand killed 
and wounded. Twenty-five hundred stands of 
arms were taken by the French. Our army, 
after sustaining this havoc, retreated with such 
extraordinary precipitation, that they regained 
tlieir camp at the southward of Lake George 
the evening after the action. 

The successes in otlier parts of America 
made amends for this defeat. Louisbourof, after 
a vigorous siege, was reduced by the Generals 
Amherst and Wolfe : Frontenac, a post of im- 
portance on the communication between Lake 
Ontario and the St. Lav/rence, surrendered to 
Colonel Bradstreet ; and Fort du duesne, si- 
tuated at the confluence of the Monongahela 
with the Ohio, the possession of which had 
kindled the flame of war that now spread 
through the four quarters of the globe, was 
captured by General Forbes. 

A few adventures, in which the public inte- 
rests were little concerned, but which, from their 
peculiarity, appear worthy of being preserved, 
happened before the conclusion of the year. As 
one day Major Putnam chanced to lie with a 
batteau and five men, on the eastern shore of 
the Hudson, near the Rapids, contiguous to 
which Fort Miller stood, his men, on the oppo- 
site bank had given him to understand, that a 
large body of savages were in his rear, and 
would be on him in a moment. To stay and 
be sacrificed — to attempt crossing and beriioit— 



44 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

or to oo down the falls, with an almost absohite 
certainty of being drowned, were the sole alter-' 
natives that presented themselves to his choice. 
So instantaneonsly was the latter adopted, that 
one man who had rambled a little from the 
party, was, of necessity, left, and fell a misera- 
ble victim to savage barbarity. The Indians 
arrived on the shore soon enongh to fire many 
balls on thebattean before it conld begot under 
way. No sooner had our batteau-men escaped, 
by favour of the rapidity of the current, beyond 
the reach of musket-shot, than death seemed 
only to have been avoided in one form to be 
encountered in another not less terrible. Pro- 
minent rocks, latent slielves, absorbing eddies, 
and abrupt descents, for a quarter of a mile, af- 
forded scarcely the smallest chance of escaping 
without a miracle. Putnam, trusting himself 
to a good Providence, whose kindness he had 
often experienced, rather than to men, whose 
tenderest mercies are cruelty, was now seen to 
place himself sedately at the helm, and afford 
an astonishing spectacle of serenity. His com- 
panions, with a mixture of terror, admiration 
and wonder, saw him incessantly chano^ing the 
course, to avoid the jaws of ruin, that seemed 
expaiiaed co swallow the whirling boat. Twice 
he turned it fairly round to shan the rifts of 
rocks. Amidst these eddies, in which was the 
greatest danger of its foundering, at one moment 
the sides were exposed to the fury of the waves ; 
then the stern, and next the bow, glanced ob- 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 45 

liquely onward, with inconceivable velocity. 
With not less amazement the savages beheld 
him sometimes mounting the billows, then 
plunging abruptly down, at other times skilfully 
veering from the rocks, and siiooting through 
the only narrow passage ; until, at last, they 
viewed the boat safely gliding on the smooth 
surface of the stream below. At this sight, it is 
asserted, that these rude sons of nature were 
atFected with the same kind of superstitious 
veneration which the Europeans, in the dark 
ages, entertained for some of their most valorous 
champions. They deemed the man invulner- 
able, whom their balls, on his pushing from 
shore, could not touch ; and whom they had 
seen steering in safety down the rapids that had 
never before been passed. They conceived it 
would be an affront against the Great Spirit 
to attempt to kill this favoured mortal with 
powder and ball, if they should ever see and 
know him again. 

In the month of August five hundred men 
were employed, under the orders of Majors 
Rogers and Putnam, to watch the motions of 
the enemy near Ticonderoga. At South-Bay 
they separated the party into two equal divi- 
sions, and Rogers took a position on Wood- 
creek, twelve miles distant from Putnam. 

Being some time afterwards discovered, they 
formed a re-union, and concerted measures for 
returning to Fort Edward. Their march 
throuorh the woods was in three divisions by 



46 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

files : the right commanded by Rogers, the left 
by Putnam, and tlie centre by Captain D'Ell. 
The first nio^ht they encamped on the banks of 
Clear river, about a mile from old f^'ort Ann, 
which had been formerly built by General Ni- 
cholson. Next morniuir^Major Kogers, and a 
British officer, named Irwin, incautiously suf- 
fered themselves, from a spirit of false emula- 
tion, to be engaged in firing at a mark. Nothing 
could have been more repugnant to the military 
principles of Putnam tlian such conduct, or re- 
probated by him in more pointed terms. As 
soon as the heavy dew wliich had fallen the 
preceding night would permit, the detachment 
moved in one body, Putnam being in front, 
D'Ell in centre, and Rogers in the rear. The 
impervious growth of shrubs and under-brush 
that had sprung up, where the land had been 
partially cleared some years before, occasioned 
this change in the order of march. At the 
moment of moving, the famous French partisan 
Molang, w4io had been sent with five hundred 
men to intercept our party, was not more than 
one mile and a half distant from them. Having 
heard the firing, he hastened to lay an ambus- 
cade precisely in that part of the wood most 
favourable to his project. Major Putnam was 
just emerging from the thicket, into the com- 
mon forest, when the enemy rose, and with 
discordant yells and whoops, commenced an 
attack on the right of his division. Surprised, 
but undismayed, Putnam haltedj returned the 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 47 

fire, and passed the word for the other divisions 
to advance for his support. D'Ell came. The 
action, though widely scattered, and principally 
fought between man and man, soon grew ge- 
neral and intensely warm. It would be as diifi- 
cult as useless to describe this irregular and 
ferocious mode of fighting. Rogers came not 
up ; but, as he declared afterwards, formed a 
circular file between our party and Wood- 
Creek, to prevent their being taken in rear or 
enfiladed. Successful as he commonly was, 
his conduct did not always pass without unfa- 
vourable imputation. Notwithstanding, it was 
a current saying in the camp, that " Rogers 
always sent^ but Putnam led^ his men to ac- 
tion," yet, in justice, it ought to be remarked 
here, that the latter has never been known, in 
relating the story of this day's disaster, to affix 
any stigma on the conduct of the former. 

Major Putnam, perceiving it would be im- 
practicable to cross the creek, determined to 
maintain his ground. Inspired by his example, 
the ofiicers and men behaved with great brave- 
ry : sometimes they fought aggregately in open 
view, and sometimes individually under cover ; 
taking aim from behind the bodies of trees, and 
acting in a manner independent of each other. 
For himself, having discharged his fuzee several 
times, at length it missed fire, while the muzzle 
was pressed against the breast of a large and 
well proportioned savage. This warrior^ avail- 
ing himself of the indefensible attitude of hi« 



48 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

adversary, with a tremendous war-whoop, 
sprang forward, with his hfted hatchet, and 
compelled him to surrender ; and having dis- 
armed and bound him fast to a tree, returned 
to the battle. 

The intrepid Captains D'Ell and Harman, 
who now commanded, were forced to give 
ground for a little distance : the savages, con- 
ceiving this to be the certain harbina^er of vic- 
tory, rushed impetuously on, with dreadful and 
redoubled cries. But our two partisans, col- 
lecting a handful of brave men, gave the pur- 
suers so warm a reception as to oblige them, iii 
turn, to retreat a little beyond the spot at which 
the action had commenced. Here they made 
a stand. This change of ground occasioned 
the tree to which Putnam was tied to be di- 
rectly between the fire of the two parties. Hu- 
man imagination can hardly figure to itself a 
more deplorable situation. The balls flew in- 
cessantly from either side, many struck the 
tree, while some passed through the sleeves and 
skirts of his coat. In this state of jeopardy, 
unable to move his body, to stir his limbs, or 
even to incline his head, he remained more 
than an hour. So equally balanced, and so 
obstinate was the fight ! At one moment, 
while the battle swerved in favour of the ene- 
my, a young savage chose an odd way of dis- 
covering his humour. He found Putnam 
bound. He might have despatched him at a 
blow. But he loved better to excite the ter- 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 49 

rors of the prisoner, by hurling a Xomahawk at 
his head, or rather it should" seem his object 
was to see how near he could throw it without 
touching him ; the weapon struck in the tree a 
number of times at a hair's breadth distance 
from the mark. When the Indian had finished 
his amusement, a French bas-officer, (a much 
more inveterate savage by nature, though de- 
scended from so humane and polished a nation,) 
perceiving Putnam, came up to him, and, level- 
ling a fuzee within a foot of his breast, at- 
tempted to discharge it ; it missed fire. Inef- 
fectually did the intended victim solicit the 
treatment due to his situation, l)y repeating 
that he was a prisoner of war. The degenerate 
Frenchman did not understand the lang-uaofe of 
honour or of nature : deaf to their voice, and 
dead to sensibility, he violently, and. repeatedly, 
pushed the muzzle of his gun against Putnam's 
ribs, and finally gave him a cruel blow on the 
jaw with the but-end of his piece. After this 
dastardly deed, he left him. 

At length the active intrepidity of D'Ell and 
Harman, seconded by the persevering valour of 
their followers, prevailed. They drove from 
the field the enemy, who left about ninety dead 
behind them. As they were retiring, Putnam 
was untied by the Indian who had made him 
prisoner, and whom he afterwards called mas- 
ter. Having been conducted for some distance 
from the place of action, he was stripped of his 
coat, vest, stockings and shoes ; loaded with aa 



60 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

many of the packs of the wounded as could be 
piled on him ; strongly pinioned, and his wrists 
tied as closely together as they could be pulled 
with a cord. After he had marched, through 
no pleasant paths, in this painful manner, for 
many a tedious mile, the party, who were ex- 
cessively fatigued, halted to breathe. His hands 
were now immoderately swelled from the tight- 
ness of the ligature ; and the pain had become 
intolerable. His feet were so much scratched, 
that the blood dropped fast from them. Ex- 
hausted with bearing a burden above his 
strength, and frantic with torments exquisite 
beyond endurance, he entreated the Irish inter- 
preter to implore, as the last and only grace he 
desired of the savages, that they would knock 
him on the head, and take his scalp at once, or 
loosen his hands. A French officer, instantly 
interposing, ordered his hands to be unbound, 
and some of the packs to be taken off. By this 
time the Indian, who had captured him, and 
had been absent with the wounded, coming up, 
gave him a pair of moccasins, and expressed 
great indignation at the unworthy treatment 
his prisoner had suffered. 

That savage chief again returned to the care 
of the wounded, and the Indians, about two 
hundred in nnmber, went before the rest of the 
party to the place where the whole were that 
night to encamp. They took with them Major 
Putnam, on whom, besides innumerable other 
outrages, they had the barbarity to inflict a 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 51 

deep wound with the tomahawk in the left cheek. 
His sufferings were in this place to be con- 
summated. A scene of horror, infinitely greater 
than had ever met his eyes before, was now 
preparing. It was determined to roast him 
alive. For this purpose they led him into a 
dark forest, stripped him naked, bound him to 
a tree, and piled dry brush, with other fuel, at a 
small distance, in a circle round him. They 
accompanied their labours, as if for his fune- 
ral dirge, with screams and sounds inimitable 
but by savage voices. Then they set the piles 
on fire. A sudden shower damped the rising 
flame. Still they strove to kindle it, until, at 
last, the blaze ran fiercely round the circle. 
Major Putnam soon began to feel the scorching 
heat. His hands were so tied that he could 
move his body. He often shifted sides as the 
fire approached. This sight, at the very idea 
of which all but savages must shudder, afforded 
the highest diversion to his inhuman torment- 
ors, who demonstrated the delirium of their joy 
by correspondent yells, dances, and gesticula- 
tions. He saw clearly that his final hour was 
ine\dtably come. He summoned all his reso- 
lution, and composed his mind, as far as the 
circumstances would admit, to bid an eternal 
farewell to all he held most dear. To quit the 
world would scarcely have cost a single pang j 
but for the idea of home, but for the remem- 
brance of domestic endearments, of the affec- 
tionate partner of his soul, and of their beloved 



62 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 



l^^s 


^p 


^P 


^^^.^ 


I^^^^^B 


^^^P 


^^B 


^^^^T-%^^^3 


i 


1 


i 


3 


^^ 


Ki 





THE SAVAGES ATTEMPTING TO ROAST PUT- 
NAM. p» 52. 

offspring. His thought was ultimately fixed on 
a happier state of existence, beyond the tor- 
tures he was beginning to endure. The bitter- 
ness of death, even of that death which is ac- 
companied with the keenest agonies, was, in a 
manner, past — nature, with a feeble struggle, 
was quitting its last hold on sublunary things — 
when a French officer rushed through the 
crowd, opened a way by scattering the burning 
brands, and unbound the victim. It was Mo- 
lang himself — to whom a savage, unwilling to 
see another human sacrifice immolated, had 
run and communicated the tidings. That 
commandant spurned and severely reprimanded 
the barbarians, whose nocturnal powwas and 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 53 

hellish orgies he suddenly ended. Putnam did 
not want for feeling or gratitude. The French 
commander, fearing to trust him alone with 
them, remained until he could deliver him in 
safety into the hands of his master. 

The savage approached his prisoner kindly, 
and seemed to treat him with particular affec- 
tion. He offered him some hard biscuit ; but 
finding that he could not chew them, on account 
of the blow he had received from the French- 
man, this more humane savage soaked some of 
the biscuit in water, and made him suck the 
pulp-like part. Determined, however, not to 
lose his captive, he took the moccasins from his 
feet, and tied them to one of his wrists: then 
directing him to lie down on his back upon the 
bare ground, he stretched one arm to its full 
length, and bound it fast to a young tree ; the 
other arm was extended and bound in the same 
manner ; his legs were stretched apart and fast- 
ened to two saplings. Then a number of tall, but 
slender poles, were cut down, which, with some 
long bushes, were laid across his body from 
head to foot: on each side lay as many Indians 
as could conveniently find lodging, in order to 
prevent the possibility of his escape. In this 
disagreeable and painful posture he remained 
until morning. During this night, the longest 
and most dreary conceivable, our hero used to 
relate that he felt a ray of cheerfulness come 
casually across his mind, and could not even 
refrain from smiling when he reflected on this 



54 LIFE, ANECDOTES. AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

ludicrous group for a painter, of which he him- 
self was the principal figure. 

The next day he was allowed his blanket 
and moccasins, and permitted to march without 
carrying any pack, or receiving any insult. 
To allay his extreme hunger, a little bear's 
meat was given, which he sucked through his 
teeth. At night the party arrived at Ticonde- 
roga, and the prisoner was placed under the 
care of a French guard. The savages, who 
had been prevented from glutting their diaboli- 
cal thirst for blood, took other opportunities of 
manifesting their malevolence for the disap- 
pointment, by horrid grimaces and angry ges- 
tures ; but they were suffered no more to offer 
violence or personal indignity to him. 

After having been examined by the Marquis 
de Montcalm, Major Putnam was conducted to 
Montreal by a French officer, who treated him 
with the greatest indulgence and humanity. 

At this place were several prisoners. Colonel 
Peter Schuyler, remarkable for his philanthro- 
py, generosity, and friendship, was of the num- 
ber. No sooner had he heard of Major Put- 
nam's arrival, than he went to the interpreter's 
quarters, and inquired whether he had a Pro- 
vincial major in his custody ? He found Major 
Putnam in a comfortless condition, without 
coat, waistcoat, or hose ; the remnant of his 
clothing miserably dirty and ragged ; his beard 
long and squalid ; his legs torn by thorns and 
briers; his fece gashed with wounds and swol- 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 55 

len with bruises. Colonel Schuyler, irritated 
beyond all sufferance at such a sight, could 
scarcely restrain his speech within limits, con- 
sistent with the prudence of a prisoner and the 
meekness of a Christian. Major Putnam was 
immediately treated according to his rank, 
clothed in a decent manner, and supplied with 
money by that liberal and sympathetic patron 
of the distressed. 

The capture of Frontenac by General Brad- 
street afforded occasion for an exchange of 
prisoners. Colonel Schuyler was comprehend- 
ed in the cartel. A generous spirit can never 
be satisfied with imposing tasks for its gene- 
rosity to accomplish. Apprehensive if it should 
be known that Putnam was a distinguished 
partisan, his liberation might be retarded, and 
knowing that there were officers who, from the 
length of their captivity, had a claim of priority 
to exchange, he had, by his happy address, in- 
duced the governor to offer, that whatever offi- 
cer he might think proper to nominate should 
be included in the present cartel. With great 
politeness in manner, but seeming indifterence 
as to object, he expressed his warmest acknow- 
ledgments to the governor, and said, " There is 
an old man here, who is a Provincial major, 
and wishes to be at home with his wife and 
children ; he can do no good here or any where 
else : I believe your excellency had better keep 
some of the young men, who have no wife or 
children to care for, and let the old fellow go 



56 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

home with me." This justifiable finesse had 
the desired effect. 

At the house of Colonel Schuyler, Major Put- 
nam became acquainted with Mrs. Howe, a 
widow lady, who had been captured by the 
Indians. She was still beautiful, though the 
mother of seven children, all of whom were 
also captives. Each of her two husbands had 
suffered death by the savao^es. A French ofli- 
cer purchased her for four hundred livres. We 
cannot here detail her interesting history, nor 
the sufferings from which she was ransomed by 
that soldier of humanity. Colonel Schuyler, 
Suffice to say, that he not only purchased her 
freedom, but gathered to her bosom the scat- 
tered children of her love, and put her under 
the protection of Major Putnam. 

In the long march from captivity, through an 
inhospitable wilderness, encumbered with five 
small children, she suffered incredible hard- 
ships. Though endowed with masculine forti- 
tude, she was truly feminine in strength, and 
must have fainted by the way, had it not been 
for the assistance of Major Putnam. There 
were a thousand good offices which the help- 
lessness of her condition demanded, and which 
the gentleness of his nature delighted to per- 
form. He assisted in leading her little ones, and 
in carrying them over the swampy grounds and 
runs of water, with which their course was fre- 
quendy intersected. He mingled his own mess 
with that of the widow and the fatherless, and 



OF I',iAJOR-v.;ENi:RAL PUTNAM. 57 

assisted them in supplying and preparing their 
provisions. Upon arriving witiiin the settle- 
ments, they experienced a reciprocal regret at 
separation, and were only consoled by the ex- 
pectation of soon mingling in the embraces of 
their former acquaintances and dearest con- 
nexions. 

We now arrive at the period when the prow- 
ess of Britain, victorious alike by sea and by 
land, in the new and in the old world, had ele- 
vated that name to the zenith of national glory. 
The conquest of Quebec opened the way for 
the total reduction of Canada. On this side of 
the lakes, Amherst having captured the posts 
of Ticonderoga and Crown-Point, applied him- 
self to strengthen the latter. Putnam, who had 
been raised to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, 
and present at these operations, was employed 
the remainder of tliis and some part of the suc- 
ceeding season, in superintending the parties 
w-hich were detached to procure timber and 
other materials for the fortification. 

In 1760, General Amherst, a sagacious, hu- 
mane, and experienced commander, planned 
the termination of the war in Canada, by a 
bloodless conquest. For this purpose, three 
armies were destined to co-operate, by different 
routes, against Montreal, the only remaining 
place of strength the enemy held in that c^iun- 
try. The corps formerly commanded by Gene- 
ral Wolfe, now by General Murray, was ordered 
to ascend the liver St. Lawrence ; another, un- 



58 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

der Colonel Haviland, to penetrate by the Isle 
Aux Noix ; and the third, consisting of about 
ten thousand men, commanded by General 
Amherst, after passing up the Mohawk river, 
and taking its course by the Lake Ontario, was 
to form a junction by falling down the St. Law- 
rence. In this progress, more than one occa- 
sion presented itself to manifest the intrepidity 
and soldiership of Lieutenant-Colonel Putnam. 
Two armed vessels obstructed the passage, and 
prevented the attack on Oswegatchie. Putnam, 
with one thousand men, in fifty batteaux, un- 
dertook to board them. This dauntless officer, 
ever sparing of the blood of others, as prodigal 
of his own, to accomplish it with the less loss, 
put himself with a chosen crew, a beetle and 
. wedges, in the van, with a design to wedge the 
rudders, so that the vessels should not be able 
to turn their broadsides, or perform any other 
mancEuvre. All the men in his little fleet were 
ordered to strip to their waistcoats, and advance 
at the same time. He promised, if he lived, to 
join and show them the way up the sides. 
Animated by so daring an example, they moved 
swiftly, in profound stillness, as to certain vic- 
tory or death. The people on board the ships, 
beholding the good countenance with which 
they approached, ran one of the vessels on 
shoife, and struck the colours of the other. Had 
it not been for the dastardly conduct of the 
ship's company in the latter, who compelled 
the captain to haul down his ensign, he would 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 



59 




PUTNAM AND HIS MEN BOARDING THE 
FRENCH. p. 59. 

have given the assailants a bloody reception : 
for the vessels were well provided with spars, 
nettings, and every customary instrument of 
annoyance as well as defence. 

It now remained to attack the fortress, which 
stood on an island, and seemed to have been 
rendered inaccessible by a high abattis of black- 
ash, that every where projected over the water. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Putnam proposed a mode of 
attack, and offered his services to carry it into 
effect. The General approved the proposal. 
Our partisan, accordingly^, caused a sufficient 
number of boats to be fitted for the enterprise. 
The sides of each boat were surrounded with 
fascines, musket proof, which covered the men 



60 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

completely. A wide plank, twenty feet in 
length, was then fitted to every boat in such 
manner, by having an angular piece sawed 
from one extremity, tliat, when fastened by 
ropes on both sides of the bow, it might be 
raised or lowered at pleasure. The design 
was, that the plank should be held erect while 
the oarsmen forced the bow v/ith the utmost 
exertion against the abattis ; and that after- 
wards being dropped on the pointed brush, it 
should serve as a bridge to assist the men in 
passing over them. Lieutenant- Colonel Put- 
nam having made his dispositions to attempt 
the escalade in many places at the same mo- 
ment, advanced with his boats in admirable 
order. The garrison, perceiving these extraor- 
dinary and unexpected machines, waited not 
the assault, but capitulated. Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel Putnam was particularly honoured by Ge- 
neral Amherst, for his ingenuity in this inven- 
tion, and promptitude in its execution. The 
three armies arrived at Montreal within two 
days of each other; and the conquest of Canada 
became complete without the loss of a single 
drop of blood. 

At no great distance from Montreal stands 
the savage village called Cochnawaga. Here 
our partizan found the Indian chief who had 
fonnerly made him prisoner. That Indian 
W£LS highly delighted to see his old acquaint- 
ance, whom he entertained in his owa well- 
built stone house with great friendship and. 



OF MAJOH-GENERAL PUTNAM. 61 

hospitality ; while his guest did not discover 
less satisfactioiT in an opportunity of shaking 
the brave savage by the hand, and proffering 
him protection in this reverse of his military 
fortunes. 

When the belligerant powers were consider- 
ably exhausted, a rupture took place between 
Great Britain and Spain, in January, 1762, 
and an expedition was forR«ed tl^at campaign, 
under Lord xVlbemarle, asainst the Ilavanna. 
A body of provincials, composed of five Imn- 
dred men from the Jerseys, eight lumdred from 
New- York, and one thousand from Connecti- 
cut, joined his lordship. General Lyman, who 
raised the regiment of one thousand men in 
Connecticut, being the senior officer, command- 
ed the whole : of course, the im.mediate com- 
mand of his regiment devolved upon Lieute- 
nant-Colonel Pmnam. The fleet that carried 
these troops sailed from New- York, and arrived 
safely on the coast of Cuba. There a terrible 
storm arose, and the transport in which Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Putnam had embarked with 
five hundred men, was wrecked on a rift of 
craggy rocks. The weather was so tempestu- 
ous, and the surf, which ran mountain-high, 
dashed with such violence against the ship, 
that the most experienced seamen expected it 
would soon part asunder. The rest of the fleet, 
so far from being able to afford assistance, with 
difficulty rode out the gale. In this deplorable 
situation, as the only expedient by which they 



62 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

could be saved, strict order was maintained, 
and all those people Avho best understood the 
use of tools, instantly employed in constructing 
rafts from spars, plank, and whatever other 
materials could be procured. There happened 
to be on board a large quantity of strono; cords, 
(the same that are used in the whale fishery,) 
which, being fastened to the rafts, after the first 
had with inconceivable hazard readied the 
shore, were of infinite service in preventing the 
others from driving out to sea, as also in drag- 
ging them athwart the billows to the beach ; 
by which means every man was finally saved. 
With the same presence of mind to take advan- 
tage of circumstances, and the same precaution 
to prevent confusion on similar occasions, how 
many valuable lives, prematurely lost, might 
have been preserved as blessings to their fami- 
lies, their friends, and their country ! As soon 
as all were landed, Lieutenant-Colonel Putnam 
fortified his camp, that he might not be exposed 
to insult from the inliabitants of the neighbour- 
ing districts, or from those of Carthagena, who 
were but twenty-four miles distant. Here the 
party remained unmolested several days, until 
the storm had so much abated as to permit the 
convoy to take them off". They soon joined 
the troops before theHavanna, who, having been 
several weeks in that unhealthy climate, al- 
ready began to grow extremely sickly.* The 

* Colonel Haviland, an accomplished officer, several times 
mentioned in these memoirs, who brought to America a re^- 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 63 

opportune arrival of the provincial re-enforce- 
ment, in perfect health, contributed not a little 
to forward the works, and hasten the reduction 
of that important place. But the provincials 
suffered so miserably by sickness afterwards, 
that very few ever returned to their native 
land. 

Though a general peace among the Euro- 
pean powers was ratified in 1763, yet the 
savages on our western frontiers still continu- 
ed their hostilities. After they had taken seve- 
ral posts, Qeneral Bradstreet was sent, in 1764, 
with an army, against them. Colonel Put- 
nam, then, for the first time, appointed to the 
command of a regiment, was on the expedi- 
tion, as was the Indian chief whom I have se- 
veral times had occasion to mention as his cap- 
turer, at the head of one hundred Cochnawaga 
warriors. Before General Bradstreet reached 
Detroit, which the savages invested. Captain 
D'Ell, the faithful friend and intrepid fellow- 
soldier of Colonel Putnam, had been slain in a 
desperate sally. Having been detached with 
five hundred men, in 1763, by General Am- 
herst, to raise the siege, he found means of 
throwing th6 succour into the fort. But the 

ment of one thousand Irish veterans, had but seventy men 
remaining;; aUve when he left the Havanna. Colonel Havi- 
land, during this siege, having once with his regiment en- 
gaged and routed five hundred Spaniards, met Colonel Putnam 
on nis return, and said, "Putnam, give me a pinch of snuff." 
"I never carry any," returned Putnam. "I have always just 
such luck," cried Haviland: "the rascally Spaniards have 
shot away my pocket, snuff-Dox and all." 



64 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

farrison, commanded by Major Gladwine, a 
rave and sensible officer, had been so much 
weakened, by the hirking and insidious mode 
of war practised by the savages, that not a 
man could be spared to co-operate in an attack 
on them. The commandant would even have 
dissuaded Captain D'EU from the attempt, on 
account of the great disparity in numbers ; but 
the latter, relying on the discipline and cou- 
rage of his men, replied, "God forbid that I 
should ever disobey the orders of my general," 
and immediately disposed them for action. It 
was obstinate and bloody ; but the vastly su- 
perior number of the savages enabled them to 
enclose Captain D'Eli's party on every side, 
and compelled him finally, to fight his way, in 
retreat, from one stone house to another. Hav- 
ing halted to breathe a moment, he saw one of 
his bravest sergeants lying at a small distance, 
wounded tlirough the thigh, and wallowing in 
his blood ; on which he desired some of the 
men to run and bring the sergeant to the 
house, but they declined it. Then declaring, 
that he never would leave so brave a soldier 
in the field to be tortured by the savages, he 
ran and endeavoured to help him up — at the 
instant, a volley of shot dropped them both 
dead together. The party continued retreat- 
ing from house to house until they regained 
the fort ; where it was found the conflict had 
been so sharp, and lasted so long, that only fifty 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 65 

men remained alive of the five hundred who 
had saUied. 

On the arrival of General Bradstreet, the 
savages saw that all further eiforts in arms 
would be vain, and accordingly, after many 
fallacious proposals for a peace, and frequent 
tergiversations in the negotiation, they con- 
cluded a treaty, which ended the war in Ame- 
rica. 

Colonel Putnam, at the expiration of ten 
years from his first receiving a commission, 
after having seen as much service, endured as 
many hardships, encountered as many dangers, 
and acquired as many laurels as any officer of 
his rank, with g-reat satisfaction laid aside his 
uniform, and returned to his plough. The va- 
rious and uncommon scenes of war in which 
he had acted a respectable part, his intercourse 
with the world, and intimacy with some of the 
first officers in the army, joined with occasion- 
al reading, had not only brought into view 
whatever talents he possessed from nature, but 
had extended his knowledge, and polished his 
manners, to a considerable degree. 

On the twenty-second day of March, 1765, 
the stamp act received the royal assent. It 
was to take place in America on the first day 
of November following. This innovation 
spread a sudden and universal alarm. The 
political pulse in the provinces, from Maine to 
Georgia, throbbed in sympathy. The assem- 
blies, in most of these colonies, that they might 



66 LIFK, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOIT.^ 

oppose it legally and in ooncert, appointed de- 
legates to confer together on tho subject. This 
first cono^ress met, earl}^ in October, at New- 
York. They agreed on a declaration of rights 
and grievances of the colonists ; together with 
separate addresses to tlie king, lords, and com- 
mons of Great Britain. In the mean time, tlie 
people had determined, in order to pre\^ent tlie 
stamped paper from being distributed, tliat the 
stamp-masters should not enter on tlie execu- 
tion of their office. That appointment, in C'on- 
necticut, had been con! erred on Mr. Ingersol, 
a very dignified, sensible, and learned native of 
the colony, who, on being solicited to resign, 
did not, in the first instance, give a satisfactory 
answer. In consequence of which, a great 
number of the substantial yeomanry, on horse- 
back, furnished with provisions f(n- themselves, 
and provender for their horses, assembled in 
the eastern counties, and began their march 
for New-Haven, to receive the resignation of 
Mr. Ingersol. A junction with another body 
was to have been formed in Branford. But 
having learned at Hartford, that Mr. Ingersol 
would be in town the next day to claim })ro- 
tection from the assembly, they took (piarters 
there, and kept out patroles during the whole 
night, to prevent his arrival without their 
knowledge. The succeeding morning they re- 
-sumed thedr march, and met Mr. ingersol in 
Wethersfield. They told him their business, 
and he, after some little hesitation, mounted on 



OF MAJOJl-CIE^ERAL PUTNAM. 67 

a round table, read his resignation.* That 
finished, the miUtitnde desired him to cry out 
" liberty and property" three times ; which he 
did, and was answered by three loud huzzas. 
He then dined with some of the principal men 
at a tavern, by whom he was treated with great 
politeness, and afterwards was escorted by 
about five hundred horse to Hartford, where 
he again read his resignation, amidst the lui- 
bounded acclamations of the people. I have 
chosen to style this collection the yeomanry^ 
the multitude^ or the peoj^le, because I could 
not use the English v/ord mob, which general- 
ly signifies a disorderly concurrence of the rab- 
ble, without conveying an erroneous idea. It 
is scarcely necessary to add, that the people, 
their objects being effected, without offering 
disturbance, dispersed to their homes.t 

♦ The curious may be pleased to know that the resignation 
was expressed in these explicit terms : 

" Wethersfield, September 9th, 1765. 

" I do hereby promise, that I never will receive any stamped 
papers which may arrive from Europe, in consequence of an 
act lately passed in the parliament of Great Britain ; nor offi- 
ciate as stamp-master or distributor of stamps, within the 
colony of Connecticut, either directly or indirectly. And I do 
hereby notify to all the inhabitants of his majesty's colony of 
Connecticut (notwithstanding the said office or trust has 
been committed to me^ not to apply to me, ever after, for any 
stamped paper; hereby declaring that I do resign the said oj- 
Jice, and execute these presents of my own free will and 
ACCORD, without any equivocation or mental reservation. 

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, 

"J. INGERSOL." 

t To give a trait of the urbanity that prevailed, it may not 
be amiss to mention a jest that passed in the cavalcade to 
Hartford, and was received with the most perfect good hu- 
mour. Mr. Ingersol, who by charree rode a white horse, be- 
ing asked " What he thought, to find himself attended by such 



68 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

Colonel Putnam, who instigated the people 
to these measures, was prevented from attend- 
ing by accident. But he was deputed soon 
after, with two other gentlemen, to wait on 
Governor Fitch on the same subject. The 
questions of the governor, and answers of Put- 
nam, will serve to indicate the spirit of the 
times. After some conversation, the governor 
asked, " What he should do if the stamped 
paper should be sent to him by the king's au- 
thority ?" Putnam replied, " lock it up until 
we shall visit you again." "And what will 
you do then ?" " We shall expect you to give 
us the key of the room in which it is deposit- 
ed ; and, if you think fit, in order to screen 
yourself from blame, you may forewarn us, on 
our peril, not to enter the room." " And what 
will you do afterwards?" " Send it safely back 
again." "But if I should refuse admission?" 
" In such a case, your house will be levelled 
with the dust in five minutes." It was suppos- 
ed, that a report of this conversation was one 
reason why the stamped paper was never sent 
from New- York to Connecticut. 

Such unanimity in the provincial assemblies, 
and decision in the yeomanry, carried beyond 
the Adantic a conviction of the inexpediency 
of attempting to enforce the new revenue sys- 
tem. The stamp act being repealed, and the 

a retinue?" replied, "that he had now a clearer idea than 
ever he had before conceived of that passage in the Revela- 
tion, which describes dealth on a pale horse^ and hell /ollow- 
ing him." 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 69 

colonies in a manner quieted, Colonel Put- 
nam continued to labour, afterwards, at farm- 
ing, without interruption, except, for a little 
time, by the loss of the first joint of his right 
thumb from one accident, and the compound 
fracture of his right thigh from another : that 
thigh, being rendered nearly an inch shorter 
than the left, occasioned him to limp in his 
walk. 

The provincial officers and soldiers from 
Connecticut, who survived the conquest of the 
Havanna, appointed General Lyman to re- 
ceive the remainder of their prize money, in 
England. A company, composed partly of 
military, and partly of other gentlemen, whose 
object was to obtain from the crown a grant of 
land on the Mississippi, also committed to him 
the negotiation of their affairs. When several 
years had elapsed in applications, a grant of 
land was obtained. In 1770, General Lyman, 
with Colonel Putnam, and two or three others, 
went to explore the situation. After a tedious 
voyage, and a laborious passage up the Missis- 
sippi, they accomplished their business. 

General Lyman came back to Connecticut 
with the explorers, but soon returned to the 
Natchez, there formed an establishment, and 
laid his bones. Colonel Putnam placed some 
labourers with provisions and farming utensils 
on his location ; but the increasing troubles 
shortly after ruined the prospect of deriving 
any advantage from that quarter. 



70 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

It will ever be acknowledged by those who 
were best acquainted with facts, and it should 
be made knowii to posterity, that the king of 
England had not, in his extensive dominions, 
subjects more loyal, more dutiful, or more zea- 
lous for his glory, than the Americans ; and 
that nothing short of a melancholy persuasion, 
that the " measures which for many years had 
been systematically pursued by his ministers, 
were calculated to subvert their constitutions," 
could have dissolved their powerful attach- 
ment to that kingdom, which they fondly called 
their 'parent country. Here, without digres- 
sion to develope the cause, or describe the pro- 
gress, it may suffice to observe, the dispute 
now verged precipitately to an awful crisis. 
Most considerate men foresaw it would termi- 
nate in blood. But rather than suffer the 
chains, which they believed in preparation, to 
be riveted, they nobly determined to sacrifice 
their lives. In vain did they deprecate the 
infatuation of those transatlantic counsels 
which drove them to deeds of desperation. 
Convinced of the rectitude of their cause, and 
doubtful of tlie issue, they felt the most painful 
solicitude for the fate of their countr^^, on con- 
templating the superior strength of the nation 
with which it was to contend. America, thin- 
ly inhabited, under thirteen distinct colonial 
governments, could have little hope of success, 
but from the protection of Providence, and the 
unconquerable spirit of freedom which pervad- 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 71 

eel the mass of the people. It is true, since 
the peace she had surprisingly increased in 
wealth and population ; but the resources of 
Britain almost exceeded credibility or concep- 
tion. It is not wonderful, then, that some good 
citizens, of weaker nerves, recoiled at the pros- 
pect ; while others, who had been officers in 
the late war, or who had witnessed, by travel- 
ling, the force of Britain, stood aloof All eyes 
were now turned to find the men who, possess- 
ing military experience, would dare, in the ap- 
proaching hour of severest trial, to lead their 
undisciplined fellow-citizens to battle ; for 
none were so stupid as not to comprehend, 
that want of success would involve the leaders 
in the punishment of rebellion. Putnam was 
among the first and most conspicuous who 
stepped forth. Although the Americans had 
been, by many who wished their subjugation, 
indiscreetly as indiscriminately stigmatized with 
the imputation of cowardice — he felt — he knew 
for himself, he was no coward ; and from what 
he had seen and known, he believed that his 
countrymen, driven to the extremity of defend- 
ing their rights by arms, would find no diffi- 
culty in wiping away the ungenerous asper- 
sion. As he happened to be often at Boston, 
he held many conversations, on these subjects, 
with General Gage, the British commander-in- 
chief, Lord Percy, Colonel Sheriff, Colonel 
Small, and many officers with whom he had 
formerly served, who were now at tlie head- 



72 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

quarters. Being often questioned, "in case 
the dispute should proceed to hostiUties, what 
part he would really take ?" he always an- 
swered, " with his country ; and that, let what- 
ever might happen, he was prepared to abide 
the consequence." Being interrogated, " whe- 
ther he^ who had been a witness to the prowess 
and victories of the British fleets and armies, 
did not think them equal to the conquest of a 
country which was not the owner of a single 
ship, regiment, or magazine ?" he rejoined, that 
" he could only say, justice would be on our 
side, and the event with Providence : but that 
he had calculated, if it required six years for 
the combined forces of England and her colo- 
nies to conquer such a feeble country as Cana- 
da, it would, at least, take a very long time for 
England alone to overcome her own widely 
extended colonies, which were much stronger 
than Canada : that when men fought for every 
thing dear, in what they believed to be the 
most sacred of all causes, and in their own na- 
tive land, they would have great advantages 
over their enemies, who were not in the same 
situation ; and that, having taken into view all 
circumstances, for his own part, he fully be- 
lieved that America would not be so easily 
conquered by England as those gentlemen 
seemed to expect." Being once, in particular, 
asked, " whether he did not seriously believe 
that a well appointed British army of five thou- 
sand veterans could march through the whole 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 73 

continent of America ?" He replied briskly, 
"No doubt, if they behaved civilly, and paid 
well for every thing they wanted ; but" — after 
a moment's pause, added, — " if they should 
attempt it in a hostile manner (though the 
American men were out of the question) the 
women, with their ladles and broomsticks, would 
knock them all on the head before they had tra- 
velled half way through." This was the tenor 
of these amicable interviews ; and thus, as it 
commonly happens in disputes about future 
events which depend on opinion, they parted 
without conviction, no more to meet in a friend- 
ly manner, until after the appeal should have 
been made to Heaven, and the issue confirmed 
by the sword. In the mean time, to provide 
against the worst contingency, the militia in the 
several colonies were sedulously trained ; and 
those select companies, the flower of our youth, 
which were denominated minutemen, agreea- 
bly to the indication of their name, held them- 
selves in readiness to march at a moment's 
warning. 

At length the fatal day arrived, when hostili- 
ties commenced. General Gage, in the evening 
of the 18th of April, 1775, detached from 
Boston the grenadiers and light infantry of the 
army, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, 
to destroy some military and other stores, de- 
posited by the province at Concord. About 
sunrise the next morning, the detachment, on 
marching into Lexington, fired on a company 
4 



74 LIFE. ANECDOTESj AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

of militia, who had just re-assembled ; for 
having been alarmed late at night, with reports 
that the regulars were advancing to demolish 
the stores, tliey collected on their parade, and 
were dismissed with orders to re-assemble at 
beat of drum. It is established by the affidavits 
of more than thirty persons who were present, 
that the first fire, which killed eight of the 
militia, then beginning to disperse, was given 
by the British without provocation. The spark 
of war, thus kindled, ran with unexampled 
rapidity, and raged with unwonted violence. 
To repel the aggression, the people of the border- 
ing towns spontaneously rushed to arms, and 
poured their scattering shot from every conve- 
nient station on the regulars, who, after marching 
to Concord, and destroying the magazine, would 
have found their retreat intercepted, had they 
not been re-enforced by Lord Percy, with the 
battalion companies of three regiments, and a 
body of marines. Notwithstanding the junc- 
tion, they were hard pushed, and pursued until 
they could find protection from their ships. Of 
the British, two hundred and eighty-three were 
killed, wounded, and taken. The Americans 
had thirty-nine killed, nineteen wounded, and 
two made prisoners. 

Nothing could exceed the celerity with which 
the intelligence flew every where, that blood 
had been shed by the British troops. The 
country, in motion, exhibited but one scene of 
hurry, preparation, and revenge. Putnam, who 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 



75 




FIRST INFORMATION PUTNAM HAS OF THE 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. p. 75. 

was ploughing when he heard the news, left 
his plough in the middle of the field, unyoked 
his team, and without waiting to change his 
clothes, set off for the theatre of action. But 
finding the British retreated to Boston, and 
invested hy a sufficient force to watch their 
movements, he came back to Connecticut,* 
levied a regiment, under authority of the legis- 

* General Putnam was absent only one week from the army 
at CambriLlge; and then, for the purpose of consultation with 
tlie Legislature of Connecticut at that imie m session ; and at 
the pamcular request of that body. . Having assisted, by Ins 
advice, in the organization of a military force, for the cam- 
nni^n of 1775, he returned immediately to the army before 
Boiton, leaving orders for the troops to fo l^^ ,^'7 " ,^".« 
dplav as poBsible, aftr/ the men could be enhsted. i Editor.). 



76 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 



latiire, and speedily returned to Cambridge.* 
He was now promoted to be a Major-General 
on the Provincial staff, by his colony ; and, in 
a little time, confirmed by Congress, in the same 
rank, on the Continental establishment. Gene- 
ral Ward, of Massachusetts, by common con- 
sent, commanded the whole ; and the celebrated 
Dr. Warren was made a Major- General. 

Not long after this period, the British com- 
mander-in-chief found the means to convey a 
])roposal, privately, to General Putnam, that if 
lie would relinquish the rebel party, he might 
rely upon being madeaMajor-General on the Bri- 
tish establishment, and receiving a great pecu- 
niar}^ compensation for his services. General 

♦ An article void of foiindation, mentioning an interview 
between General Gage and General Putnam, appeared in the 
English gazettes, in these words: "General Gage, viewing 
the American army with his telescope, saw General Putnam 
in it, which surprised him ; and he contrived to get a message 
delivered to him, that he wanted to speak to hmi. Putnam, 
without any hesitation, vvaited upon him. General Gage 
showed him his fortifications, and advised him to lay down 
his arms. General Putnam replied, he could force his fortifi- 
cations in half an hour, and advised General Gage to go on 
board the ships with his troops." 

The apprehension of an attack is adduced with much more 
veri-similitude in M'Fingal, as the reason why General Gage 
would not suffer the inhabitants to go from the town of Bos- 
ton, after he had promised to grant permission : 

" So Gage of late agreed, you know, 

To let the Boston people go ; 

Yet when he saw, 'gainst troops that brav'd him, 

They were the only guards that sav'd him, 

Kept off that Satan of a Putnam, 

From breaking in to maul and mutt'n him, 

He d too much wit such leagues t' observe, 

And shut them in again to starve." 

MTingal, Canto I. 



OF MAJOR-GENEIIAL PUTNAM. / / 

Putnam spurned at the offer ; which, however, 
he thought prudent at that time to conceal 
from puhhc notice. 

It could scarcely have been expected, but by 
those credulous patriots who were prone to 
believe whatever they ardently desired, that 
officers assembled from colonies distinct in their 
manners and prejudices, selected from laborious 
occupations, to command alieterogeneous crowd 
of their equals, compelled to be soldiers only 
by the spur of occasion, should long bo al)le to 
preserve harmony among tliemselves, and 
subordination among their followers. As the 
fact would be a phenomenon, the idea was 
treated with mirth and mockery by the friends 
to the British government. Yet this unshaken 
embryo of a military corps, composed of militia, 
minutemen, volunteers, and levies, with a bur- 
lesque appearance of multiformity in arms, 
accoutrements, clothing, and conduct, at last 
grew into a regular army — an army which, 
having vindicated the riglits of human nature, 
and established the independence of a ne\v' 
empire, merited and obtained the glorious dis- 
tinction of the patriot army — the patriot army, 
whose praises for their fortitude in adversity, 
bravery in battle, moderation in conquest, per- 
severance in supportino^ the cruel extremities 
of hunger and nakedness, without a murmur or 
sigh, as well as for their magnanimity in retiring 
to civil life, at the moment of victory, with arms 
in their hands, rnd without any just compensa- 



78 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

tiou for their services, will only cease to be cele- 
brated when time shall exist no more. 

Enthusiasm for the cause of liberty, substi- 
tuted in the place of discipline, not only kept 
these troops together, but enabled them at once 
to perform the duties of a disciplined army. 
Though the commanding officers from the four 
colonies of New England were in a manner 
independent, they acted harmoniously in con- 
cert. The first attention had been prudently 
directed towards forming some little redoubts 
and intrenchments ; for it was well known that 
lines, however slight or untenable, were calcu- 
lated to inspire raw soldiers with a confidence 
in themselves. The next care was to bring 
the live stock from the islands in Boston bay, 
in order to prevent the enemy, (already sur- 
rounded by land,) from making use of them 
for fresh provisions. In the latter end of May, 
between two and three hundred men were sent 
to drive off the stock from Hog and Noddle 
islands, which are situated on the north-east 
side of Boston harbour. Advanta2:e havino- 
been taken of the ebb-tide, when the water is 
fordable between the main and Hog island, as 
it is between that and Noddle island, the design 
was effected. But a skirmish ensued, in which 
some of the marines, who had been stationed 
to guard them, were killed ; and as the firing 
continued between the British water-craft and 
our party, a re-enforcement of three hundred 
men, with two pieces of artillery, was ordered 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 79 

to join the latter. General Putnam tooli: the 
command, and having gone dowm on the beach, 
within conversing distance, and ineffectually 
ordered the people on board an armed schooner 
to strike, he plied her with shot so furiously, 
that the crew made their escape, and the vessel 
was burnt. An armed sloop w^as likewise so 
much disabled as to be towed off by the boats 
of the fleet. Tiius ended this affair, in which 
several hundred sheep, and some cattle, were 
removed from under the muzzles of the enemy's 
cannon, and our men, accustomed to stand fire, 
by being for many hours exposed to it, without 
meeting with any loss. 

The provincial Generals, having received 
advice that the British commander-in-chief de- 
signed to take possession of the heights on the 
peninsula at Charlestown, detached a thousand 
men in the night of the 16th of June, under 
the orders of General Warren, to intrench 
themselves on one of these eminences, named 
Bunker Hill. Though retarded by accidents 
from beginning the work until nearly mid- 
night, yet, by dawn of day, they had construct- 
ed a redoubt about eight rods square, and com- 
menced a breast-^vork from the left to the low 
grounds; v/hich an insufferable fire from the 
shipping, floating batteries, and cannon on 
Copp's Hill, in Boston, prevented them from 
completing. At mid-day, four battalions of foot, 
ten companies of grenadiers, ten companies of 
light infantry, with a proportion of artillery. 



80 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

commanded by Major-General Howe, landed 
under a heavy cannonade from the ships, and 
advanced in three hnes to the attack. The 
light infantry being formed on the right, was 
directed to tnrn the left flank of the Americans ; 
and the grenadiers, supported by tw^o battalions, 
to storm the redoubt in front. Meanwhile, on 
application, these troops were augmented by 
the 47th regiment, the 1st battalion of marines, 
together with some companies of light infantry 
and grenadiers, which formed an aggregate 
force of between two and three thousand men.* 
But so difficult was it to re-enforce the Ameri- 
cans, by sending detachments across the Neck, 
which was raked by the cannon of the shippmg, 
that not more than fifteen hundred men were 
brought into action. Few instances can be 
produced in the annals of mankind, where 
soldiers, who never had before faced an enemy, 
or heard the whistling of a ball, behaved with 
such deliberate and persevering valour. 

General Putnam rode througli the line, and 
ordered that no one should fire till they arrived 
within eight rods, nor any one till command- 
ed. "Powder was scarce and must not be 
wasted. They should not fire at the enemy 
till they saw the white of their eyes, and then 

♦ The preceding paragraph was copied frorn a British Re- 
gister, being the Enghsh account of the troops sent to tha 
attack of Bunker Hill, and the disposition ojf those troop?. 
This account, and others, published at the time, and ascribing 
the command of the American force to Warren, probably 
eccasioned the historical error on that subject. {Eiiitqr.] 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 81 

fire low, take aim at their waistbands. They 
were all marksmen, and could kill a squirrel at 
a hundred yards ; reserve their fire, and the 
enemy were all destroyed. Aim at the hand- 
some coats, pick oft' the commanders." The 
same orders were reiterated by Prescott at the 
redoubt, by Pomeroy, Stark, and all the vete- 
ran officers. 

The enemy were within gunshot of the re- 
doubt ; a few of the sharp shooters could not 
resist the temptation and tired. Prescott was 
indignant at this contempt of his orders ; wav- 
ing his sword, he swore instant death against 
the first who disobeyed again, appealed to 
their well known confidence in him, and pro- 
mised to give them orders at the proper mo- 
ment. 

The enemy were at eight rods distance, the 
deadly muskets were levelled, when Prescott 
commanded his men to take good aim, be sure 
of their mark, and fire. He was effectually 
obeyed. The whole front rank was swept 
away, and many a gallant officer laid low. 
They were, however, countrymen of those 
who gave the fire, and received it with the 
same cool courage with which it was given. 
Rank succeeded rank, and returned the fire. 
but the odds was fearful ; the Americans were 
well protected by the works ; the efforts and 
courage of the enemy were in vain^ and with 
surly reluctance they were compelled to re- 
treat. 

4* 



82 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

Warren animated and encouraged the men, 
and with the rest of the officers, set them an 
example with his musket ; there was scarcely 
an officer of any grade, except Putnam and 
Prescott, without one. 

Perfect as was the fire of the American in- 
fantry, their artillery Avas as grossly defective 
in every respect. This arm requires science, 
experience, and knowledge of position. But 
the artillery companies were just selected from 
the infantry, and entirely ignorant of their du- 
ty. Callender carried his pieces into action, 
but his cartridges required adjusting. Totally 
in violation of military discipline, he left his 
post without orders, and was retiring to a se- 
cure place under cover of the hill, to prepare 
for firing. Plitnam observed tliis appearance 
of retreat, and was fired with indignation ; he 
ordered him instantly to his post ; Callender 
remonstrated, but Putnam threatened him with 
instant death, if he hesitated, and forced him 
back. His men, however, vv^ere disgusted with 
a part of the service they did not understand, 
most of them had muskets and mingled in the 
fight; the pieces were entirely deserted, and 
the captain relinquished tliem. 

The British had neglected tbe only manoeu- 
vre which would have defeated the enemy, to 
mount the works and charge with the bayonet. 
The Americans Jiad scarcely a bayonet to a com- 
pany, and it must have succeeded. Under co- 
ver of the hill they prepared for another onset. 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 83 

Their fellow soldiers on the right arrived 
about the time of this attack on the redoubt to 
within about one hundred yards of the Ameri- 
cans. They were throwing down a fence, 
when a few marksmen fired on them. Put- 
nam was enraged at this disobedience of an 
order on which the salvation of the army de- 
pended ; he rode to the spot, his sword whist- 
ling through the air ; in his indignation, he 
threatened to cut down the first who dared to 
fire again without orders. The discharge 
from these few muskets, however, drew the 
fire from the enemy's line, which continued 
moving on, and when about eight rods from 
the fence, the fatal order was given ; the fire 
of the Americans mowed them down with the 
same tremendous severity, as at the redoubt. 
The officers especially fell victims to their 
deadly aim. 

During this tremendous fire of musketry 
and roar of cannon, M'Clary's stentorian voice 
vv^as distinctly heard, animating and encourag- 
ing the men, as though he would inspire every 
bptll that sped with his own fire and energy. 

The British fired their heaviest vollies of 
musketry with admirable coolness and regu- 
larity, but without aim, at the Americans, and 
almost every ball passed harmless over them. 
Their artillery had been stopped by the brick 
kilns in the low ground, and produced little 
effect. This v/ing of the army having cover- 
ed the ground with their dead, were at length 



84 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

compelled likewise to retreat ; and the huzza 
of victory re-echoed through the American 
line. 

General Ward had by this time despatched 
sufficient re-enforcements, but they did not reach 
the field. The fire across the Neck wore an 
aspect too terrific for raw troops to venture 
through it. Putnam flew to the spot to over- 
come their fears and hurry them on before the 
enemy returned. He entreated, threatened, 
and encouraged them ; lashing his horse with 
the flat of his sword, he rode backward and 
forward across the Neck, through the hottest 
fire, to convince them there was no danger. 
The balls however threw up clouds of dust 
about him, and the soldiers were perfectly con- 
vinced that he was invulnerable, but not equal- 
ly conscious of being so themselves.* Some of 
these troops, however, ventured over. 

The battalion of artillery under Major Grid- 
ley had proceeded but a few hundred rods 
down the road to Charlestown, when they were 
halted, and this officer determined not to pro- 
ceed to the hill, but wait and cover the retreat, 
which he considered inevitable. He was 
young and inexperienced, and totally inade- 
quate to the important command wiiich had 
been conferred on him in compliment to his fa- 
ther, Colonel Gridley. He was confounded 
with the dangers and difficulties of his situa- 

* The principal fact here is proved by the deposition of Mr. 
Samuel I3assett j the other circumstances by oral testimony. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. o5 

tion, and never recovered his self-possession 
during the day. 

While the artillery was halted in this situa- 
tion, Colonel James Frye, (who was absent 
from his regiment on duty the day before, but 
the battle approaching, had found his way to 
the field,) riding from Charles town, galloped up 
to them, and demanded of the senior captain,* 
" why this unseasonable halt !" He was aston- 
ished at the reply, and ordered them instantly 
to the field. This veteran also animated their 
courage by the glorious recollection " this day 
" thirty years since, I was at the taking of Lou- 
" isbourg when it was surrendered to us ; it is 
" a fortunate day for America, we shall certain- 
" ly beat the enemy." 

The artillery proceeded. Gridley joined 
them ; but his aversion to joining in the en- 
gagement was invincible, and he ordered them 
on to Cobble Hill, to fire at the Glasgow and 
floating batteries. The order was so palpably 
absurd, with their three pounders, that Captain 
Trevett absolutely refused obedience, ordered 
his men to follow him, and marched for the 
lines. 

Major Gridley was sensible his artillery would 
be hazarded without infantry to cover them. 
Colonel Mansfield had been ordered with his 
regiment to re-enforce the troops at Charles- 
town, but being peremptorily commanded by 

♦ He was living in 1812, and from whom we have this an- 
ecdote. 



86 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

Major Gridley, whom he considered high mili- 
tary authority, to cover his pieces, he compUed, 
in violation of his orders. 

General Putnam left the Neck for Bunker 
Hill to bring up the re-enforcements. He there 
found Colonel Gerrish with his regiment and 
some other scattered troops. The colonel had 
been a captain in the provincial army of 175(3; 
he was of unwieldy corpulence, and a dispo- 
sition by far too quiet for a soldier's. He had 
marclied his men rapidly from Cambridge, and 
unwisely halted them here to rest. The blazing 
sun and tremendous fire of the enemy combined 
were far too powerful for the faintness of his 
military ardour to overcome. The men were 
disorganized and dispersed on the west side of 
the hill, and covered by the summit from the 
fire. Putnam ordered them on to the lines ; he 
entreated and threatened them, and some of 
the most cowardly he knocked down with his 
sword, but all in vain. The men complained 
they had not their officers ; he offered to lead 
them on himself, but the " cannon were desert- 
ed, and they stood no chance without them." 
The battle indeed appeared here in all its hor- 
rors. The British musketry fired higli, and 
took effect on tbiis elevated hill, and it was com- 
pletely exposed to the combined fire from their 
ships, batteries, and field pieces. 

The enemy were by tiiis time organized 
anew, and were again advancing to the attack. 
Putnam's duty called him to the lines. At this 



OF MAJOU-GENERAL PUTNAM. 87 

time Captain Ford appeared with his company. 
He served in a regiment under the veteran 
Lieutenant-Colonel Parker and Major Brooks. 
Of them he had learned the duties of a soldier. 
He had aheady signalized himself at Lexington 
battle, by killing five of the enemy. His orders 
were to proceed to the lines and re-enforce the 
troops ; he obeyed, marched unconcerned across 
the Neck, and was proceeding down Bunker 
Hill, when Putnam was delighted with an aid 
so opportune. Callender's deserted cannon 
were at the foot of the hill ; he ordered Captain 
Ford with his company to draw them into line. 
The captain remonstrated " his company were 
totally ignorant of the discipline and employ- 
ment of artillery." But the general perempto- 
rily persisting in his order, he obeyed ; his 
company moved with the cannon and the gene- 
ral to the rail fence. 

The heroic enemy with unwavering step and 
firm undaunted bravery appeared aorain before 
the murderous lines which had already com- 
pelled them to retreat. They had nearly the 
same obstacles to overcome as before. Their 
cumbrous knapsacks, tall and almost impassa- 
ble grass, and a torrid sun blazing in face of 
them, they had to contend against, as well as an 
enemy every way worthy of them. One new 
obstacle they had to pass, the dead bodies of 
their fellow soldiers which covered the ground. 
But this served rather to stimulate them to still 
more daring efforts to avenge their fall, Tha 



88 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

last of the re-enforcements, a few companies of 
marines, arrived on the left. 

The Americans were now more confident 
and perfect than before in a manoeuvre which 
had been crowned with success. It was indeed 
perfectly simple, but equally fata] to the foe. 
They received orders to reserve their fire till 
the enemy approached still nearer than before. 
At six rods only they were permitted to return 
the fire. The British artillery approached by 
the narrow road between the tongue of land 
and Breed's Hill, within three hundred yards 
of the rail fence, and almost in a line with the 
redoubt, and opened on the lines to prepare a 
way for their infantry. The latter commenced 
a regular and tremendous volley by platoons, 
and their fire soon became general. But un- 
fortunately for them, though perfect in di'ill dis- 
cipline, and regular movements of parade, they 
were as grossly unskilful in what was a thou- 
sand times more important, a knowledge of 
their weapons. Their aim was too elevated, 
and the enemy were hidden behind their works. 
Some of their balls, however, took effect^ and a 
few of the privates fell victims. The brave 
Major Moore was mortally wounded. Major 
Buckminster received a ball through the shoul- 
der, and was crippled for life. 

To add new horrors to the scene, vast co- 
lumns of smoke were now observed ovex 
Charlestown, and passed to the south over the 
American lines. General Howe, on his Urst 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 89 

advance, had sent word to General Burgo^Tie 
and General Clinton, on Copp's Hill, that his left 
flank was annoyed by musketry from Charles- 
town, and ordered them to burn it down. A 
carcass was fired, but fell short near the ferry 
way; a second fell in the street, and the town 
was on fire. The conflagration was completed 
by a detachment of men wlio landed from the 
Somerset, The whole town was combustible. 
The flames ascended to heaven on the lofty 
spire of the church, and resembled the eruptions 
of a vast volcano in solemn grandeur and snb- 
lunity. The advance of the enemy was not 
obscured by the smoke from Charlestown ; they 
were in full view of the Americans. Putnam 
now, with the assistance of Captain Ford's 
company, opened his artillery on them. He 
had on this day performed the service of gene- 
ral, engineer, and guide, and he now turned 
cannonier, with splendid success, and to the 
highest satisfaction of his surrounding country- 
men. Each company of artillery had but twelve 
cartridges, and these were soon expended. He 
pointed the cannon, the balls took effect on the 
enemy, and one case of canister made a lane 
through them. As in Milton's battle, 

" Foul dissipation followed and forced rout." 

With wonderful courage, however, the enemy 
closed his ranks, and the fire became general 
on both sides. The Americans suffered the 
«nemy to approach still nearer than before j 



90 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

men and officers fell in promiscuous heaps ; 
whole front ranks of them were swept away. 

General Ward was without staff officers to 
bear his commands, excepting one aid, and a 
secretary, who performed the duty. During the 
whole day these were mounted and on full 
speed between Breed's Hill and head quarters. 
Loss and neglect of orders were the inevitable 
consequence. Colonel Gardner's regiment and 
others who had been posted between Cambridge 
and Charlestown, to wait further orders, were 
overlooked. The battle was raging, and no 
orders arrived. The colonel was a gentleman 
of rank, had been a member of the legislature, 
and commanded a regiment of militia, which, 
marching to Lexington, to join in the engage- 
ment there, suddenly opened on the British 
artillery; being entirely void of cover they dis- 
persed. His gallant soul felt their conduct as a 
stigma on himself, and he resolved on the ear- 
liest opportunity to wipe the spot from his es- 
cutcheon. A glorious occasion was before 
him, and he panted to embrace it — to reap the 
honours of victory, or death and lasting fame. 
The latter fate was decreed him. He called to 
him his officers, and offered to lead them into 
battle ; most of them, with three hundred of his 
men, followed him. He led them over Bunker 
Hill, viewed with unconcern the battle scene 
on the hill before him, terrible as Mount Sinai, 
and with glorious anticipations, was descending 
to the engagement, when a musket ball entered 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 91 

his groin, and the wound proved mortal. He 
gave his men his last solemn injunction, to con- 
quer or die, and was carried off the field. He 
soon met Captain Trevett advancing with his 
artillery, and an interesting and heroic inter- 
view ensued between the colonel and Captain 
Trevett's second lieutenant, Gai'dner, his son, 
a mere youth of nineteen. The son was in 
agony at the desperate situation of his father, 
and would have attended him off the ground. 
But the colonel prohibited this. " He' should 
not be alarmed at his situation, he was engaged 
in a good cause, and must march on and do 
his duty." The distracted son obeyed, and 
his dymg father had the consolation to learn 
that his last injunction and glorious example 
were not lost ; and that his son was worthy of 
him. 

These re-enforcements, v^7ith Captain Clark 
and Captains Chester and Coit, who soon fol- 
lowed Y/ith their companies, supplied the places 
of those who had expended their ammunition 
and left the ground, and of the detachment sent 
off with the intrenching tools, who, in contempt 
of their orders, never returned. 

The British had a long time borne the mur- 
derous fire of the enemy, but their astonishing 
fortitude and daring efforts were useless against 
the insuperable difficulties they encountered. 
Nearly a thousand of their number had fallen, 
with an incredible proportion of the bravest of- 
ficers. The distinguished Colonels Abercombie 



92 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

and Williams, and Major Spendlove, had pur- 
chased fame with their lives. 

The gallant Major Small was left standing 
alone, every one shot down about him. The 
never erring muskets were levelled at him, and 
a soldier's fate was his inevitable destiny, had 
not Putnam at the instant appeared. Each 
recognized in the other an old friend and fellow 
soldier ; the tie was sacred ; Putnam threw up 
the deadly muskets with his sword, and ar- 
rested his fate. He begged his men to spare 
that officer, as dear to him as a brother. The 
general's humane and chivalrous generosity 
excited in them new admiration, and his friend 
retired unhurt. 

The undaunted Howe still led on his men in 
the hottest of the battle. His friend and volun- 
teer aid, Gordon, and Captain Addison, a de- 
scendant from the author of the Spectator, were 
slain, and almost every other officer of his staff, 
or near him, was shot. Mortified and indignant 
at so much blood wasted in vain, he seemed to 
court an honourable death to hide him from the 
disgrace of a second defeat by an enemy he 
despised as peasants and rebels. His life 
seemed charmed, and he was compelled to fol- 
low his army, who again retreated, and left their 
enemy to taste, a second time, the joys of vic- 
tory. 

The exultation of the Americans was glorious 
and well deserved, but it was, alas, short-lived. 
They had leisure to realize the entire hopeless- 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 93 

ness of their situation. Their ammunition was 
expended, and they were as destitute of every 
offensive weapon as the naked savages, their 
predecessors. Prescott found a few artillery 
cartridges, which he distributed to his men, and 
they determined to show a resolute front to the 
enemy, to club their muskets, and even employ 
the stones thrown up with the parapet against 
them. Their only hope, however, was from a 
want of fortitude in the enemy, and that they 
had twice this day proved was slender indeed. 

General Howe gave his men orders to pre- 
pare again to advance. Some of the officers 
remonstrated, that it would be mere butchery to 
lead them on again ; but the generals, and nearly 
every officer, were indignant at a distant sus- 
picion of their yielding the victory to these 
rebels, an undisciplined ra1:)ble, of inferior 
numbers, after all their boasting, and after 
they had poured out every epithet of contempt 
against them. To conquer or die was their 
resolve. 

Bloody experience at last opened their eyes 
to their egregious errors. Their overweening 
confidence was laid aside, and a calculated, de- 
hberate, and judicious plan of attack adopted. 
The overloaded knapsacks were relinquished ; 
firing with musketry was prohibited, and a 
charge with the bayonet resorted to. The at- 
tack was to be more concentrated ; while the 
troops at the rail fence were amused by a show 
of force, the grand effort was to be against the 



94 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPL0IT8 

redoubt and breastwork, and particularly the 
right flank. 

The accomplished and chivalrous General 
Clinton now joined and brought his splendid 
talents into the council, and his distinguished 
gallantry into the field. Immediate and incon- 
ceivable was the sensation his appearance pro- 
duced at this moment of deep despondence. 
From Copps Hill he had observed with shame 
and indignation the double rout of his country- 
men, and particularly that the two distinguished 
battalions, the marines and forty-seventh, were 
staggered and wavering. Without waiting for 
orders, he threw himself into a boat, passed 
over, and soon breathed into them his own ex- 
alted heroism. 

General Howe a third time commanded a 
forward movement to scale the works, and rush 
on the enemy with the bayonet. He came to 
the left to lead on to the redoubt himself Clin- 
ton joined General Pigot and the marines on 
the left, to turn the rigiit flank of the Americans. 
The artillery were ordered to advance still far- 
ther than before on their old rout, and turn the 
left of the breastwork to rake the line. General 
Howe at last became sensible that this was the 
most vulnerable point and key of his enemy's 
position. 

The Americans made every preparation pos- 
sible to repel the last desperate efibrt of the 
enemy. Putnam again rode to the rear, and 
exhausted every art and eflbrt to bring on the 



OF MAJOtl-GENERAL PUTNAM. 0$ 

scattered re-enforcements. Captain Bayley, only, 
of Colonel Gerrish's regiment, advanced to the 
lines, and Captain Trevett now arrived at the 
rail fence with his pieces. 

The enemy stripped off their knapsacks, and 
many of them their coats ; the artillery pushed 
on by the road on the north, the forty-seventh 
and marines near the road on the south side of 
tlie hill, and the remains of the royal Irish and 
other regiments, and part of the grenadiers and 
light infantry, in front. Their past efforts had 
exhausted the strength and spirit of many of 
the men, who lingered in the rear, and their 
gallant officers were compelled to urge them 
on with their swords. Some of the less reso- 
lute fired their pieces, but the great masses 
obeyed their orders, and with firmness moved 
on to the charge. They arrived under the fire 
of the Americans, who improved to advantage 
their last opportunity for vengeance. Every 
shot took effect. The gallant Howe at last 
received a ball in ihe foot, where, only, like 
Achilles, he seemed to be vulnerable, but con- 
tinued to animate his men. 

A few only of the Americans had a charge 
of ammunition remaining. They had sent for 
a supply in vain ; a barrel and a half only were 
in the magazine. They resorted next to stones, 
but these served only to betray their weakness, 
and lent new energy to the foe. 

The artillery advanced to the open space 
between the breastwork and rail fence; this 

G 



96 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

ground was defended by some brave Essex 
troops, covered only by scattered trees. With 
resolution and deadly aim they poured the 
most destructive vollies on the enemy. The 
cannon, however, turned the breastwork, enfi- 
laded the line, and sent their balls through the 
open gateway or sa)ly port, directly into the 
redoubt, under cover of which the troops at the 
breastwork were comjjelled to retire. 

The enemy bravely bore the deadly fire, and 
continually closing his broken ranks, deliber- 
ately advanced on every side of the redoubt 
except the north. They were now under the 
eastern side of the redoubt and covered from 
the fire. The Americans retired to the side 
opposite to take them as they rose. Lieute- 
nant Prescott, a nephew of the colonel, re- 
ceived a ball through the arm ; it hung broken 
and useless by his side. The colonel ordered 
him to content himself with encouraging his 
men. But he contrived to load his piece, and 
was passing by the sally port to rest against 
the enemy, when a cannon ball cut him to 
pieces. 

Young Richardson, of the royal Irish, was 
the first to mount the works, and was instant- 
ly shot down ; the front rank which succeeded 
shared the same fate. Among these mounted 
the gallant Major Pitcairn, and exultingly cried 
" the day is ours," when a black soldier, named 
Salem,* shot him through, and he fell. His 

* A contribution waa mad© in the army for this soldier, 



bP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. &? 

agonized son received him in his arms, and 
tenderly bore him to the boats. It was he who 
caused the first effusion of blood at Lexington. 
In that battle his horse was shot under him, 
while he was separated from his troops ; with 
presence of mind he feigned himself slain ; his 
pistols* were taken from his holsters, and he 
was left for dead, when he seized the opportu- 
nity and escaped. 

The heroic but diminutive Pigot ran up the 
south-east corner of the redoubt, assisted by a 
tree left standing there, and desperately led on 
his men. Troops succeeded troops over the 
parapet, and Prescott exhausted every resource 
to repel them, even with the buts of his guns. 

But he had now his last great victory to 
achieve, to which all his past toils, dangers, 
and privations, were nothing. He had twice 
conquered the enemy; he had now a more 
difficult task, to conquer himself, to bend down 
his lofty soul, and turn liis back to the enemy. 
Perfectly careless of his own life, he had no 
right to trifle with the lives of his men. It was 
a sacred deposit they had intrusted to his 
honour, a bond which he never forfeited. Ii\- 
stead of a useless waste of life, with a "nil 
desperandum," he quelled his revolting spirit 
and ordered a retreat. 

and he was presented to Washington, as having performed 
this feat. 

♦ This trophy afterwards belonged to General Putnam, ajid 
y«t remains in hie family, from whom we have the abovt 
anecdote. ^ 
5 



98 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

General Ward had gratified at last the ar- 
dent wishes of the Connecticut troops to join 
their beloved general. Captains Chester, Clark, 
and Coit, were on the ground with their troops, 
and Major Durkee's impatience had before this 
brought him mounted to the field, to join his 
old commander and comrade of former wars. 
Putnam's imagination had already inscribed 
the victory of Bunker Hill on his coat of arms, 
when a dark cloud flew across the brilliant 
prospect. The retreat of the right wing burst 
upon him. 

The gallant veteran Gridley now received a 
ball through the leg, and was carried oC He 
had served all night at the intrenchments, and 
had all day assisted in defending his own works, 
and proving their excellence. 

Prescott's troops fought their way through 
the surrounding enemy. The veteran Captain 
Bancroft was charging his piece, a British sol- 
dier leaped from the parapet, touching him as 
he came to the ground, and levelled at him ; 
they fired together ; the captain tore him to 
pieces, and escaped unhurt. One of the men 
without ammunition perceived Lieutenant Pres- 
cott's loaded musket by its deceased master ; a 
Briton obstructed his passage ; seizing the 
loaded musket he brought his antagonist to the 
ground. 

Colonel Bridge, who came with the first de- 
taehment, was one of the last to retreat, and 
twie« severely wounded, in the head and 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. ^9 

neck. His lieutenant-colonel, the veteran Park- 
er, who had escaped through the whole war of 
1756, in which he had signalized himself, and 
especially at the desperate siege of Fort Fron- 
tinac, received a ball in the thigh, and was left 
mortally wounded in the redoubt. 

The chivalrous Warren lingered to the last. 
His exalted spirit disdained as a disgrace a 
retreat the most inevitable. He animated the 
men to the most desperate daring ; and when 
hope itself had fled, he still disdained to fl^i 
With sullen reluctance he followed his country- 
men, and seemed to court that ball from the 
enemy, which, a few yards from the redoubt, 
passed through his head, and secured to him 
the eternal gratitude of his countrymen, and 
immortal fame throughout the world. 

Small here repaid the debt of gratitude he 
owed the enemy. He recognized Warren, his 
intimate friend, as he was leaving the redoubt, 
called to him for God's sake to stand and save 
his life; he turned and seemed to recognize 
him, but kept on. Small commanded the men 
not to fire at him ; he threw up the muskets 
with his sword, but in vain, the fatal ball had 
sped. 

The enemy came on, exhausted by their 
desperate efforts, under a blazing sun, and 
broken by the well directed fire. " They had 
not force to employ the bayonet, and were too 
much broken and mingled with the enemy to 
fire their pieces. Their right and left wings 



iOO LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

were indeed facing each other, with the Ame- 
ricans between ; their fire would have cut down 
both friend and foe. While they formed them- 
selves anew, the Americans collected, and made 
a brave and orderly retreat. Putnam put 
spurs to his foaming horse and threw himself 
between the retreating force and the enemy, 
who were but twelve rods from him;* his 
countrymen were in momentary expectation of 
seeing this compeer of the immortal Warren 
fall. He entreated them to rally and renew the 
fight, to finish his works on Bunker Hill, and 
again give the enemy battle on that unassaila- 
ble position, and pledged his honor to restore 
to them an easy victory. Captain Smith, of 
General Ward's regiment, came with his com- 
pany to re enforce, joined in the retreat, and as- 
sisted to keep the enemy at bay. 

The Americans had retreated about twenty 
rods before the enemy had time to rally and 
pour in a destructive fire on them, which de- 
stroyed more than they had lost before during 
the day. Colonel Prescott's adjutant was shot 
and crippled ; Captain Dow, of his regiment, 
W£is also crippled by a wound in the leg, and 
Captain Bancroft had a part of his hand carried 
off. 

The American left wing were openly con- 

♦ Deposition of Lyman, then a lieutenant, and present, and 
Miner, a private in the same company. This is confirmed 
too by the testimony of a distinguished officer of the revolu- 
Jion, yet living, in 1818, who had served with General Putnanj 
m the French war, and was present, though badly wounded^ 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. lOl 

gratulating themselves on their victory, when 
their flank was opened by the retreat of the 
right. The enemy pressed on them, and they 
were in their turn compelled to retire. Put- 
nam covered their retreat with his Connecticut 
troops, and dared the utmost fury of the enemy, 
in the rear of the whole. These pursued with 
little ardour, but poured in their thundering vol- 
lies, and showers of balls fell like hail around 
the general.* 

He- addressed himself to every passion of the 
troops, to persuade them to rally, to throw up 
his works on Bunker Hill, and make a stand, 
and, as the last resort, threatened them with 
the eternal disgrace of deserting their general. 
He took his stand near a field piece, and seem- 
ed resolved to brave the foe alone. His troops, 
however, felt it impossible to withstand the 
overwhelming force of the British bayonets ; 
they left him. One sergeant only dared to 
stand by his general to the last ; he was shot 
down, and the enemy's bayonets were just upon 
the general, before he retired. 

General Pomeroy continued to animate the 
men, and cut down the enemy himself, till a 
well hove ball shattered his musket. The re- 
treat having commenced, he disdained to turn 
his back ; but with backward step and lower- 
ing front shouldered the fragments of his piec« 

* This fact we have from a respectable friend, Philip John- 
son, Esq., who was present, and living, in 1818, at Newburf*. 
porL His honour and veracity is surpassed by no man's. 



102 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

and carried off his men, encouraging them to 
pour in their formidable fire on the enemy. 

The premature death of Warren, one of the 
most illustrious patriots that ever bled in the 
cause of freedom ; the veteran appearance of 
Putnam, collected, yet ardent in action ; toge- 
ther with the astonishing scenery and interest- 
ing group around Bunker-Hill, rendered this a 
magnificent subject for the historic pencil. 
Accordingly Trumbull, formerly an Aid-de- 
Camp to General Washington, afterwards 
Deputy-Adjutant-General of the northern ar- 
my, now an artist of great celebrity in Europe, 
has finished this picture with that boldness oi 
conception, and those touches of art, which de- 
monstrate the master. Heightened in horror 
by the flames of a burning town, and the smoke 
of conflicting armies, the principal scene, taken 
the moment when Warren fell, represents that 
hero in the agonies of death, a grenadier on the 
point of bayoneting him, and Colonel Small, to 
whom he was famiharly known, arresting the 
soldier's arms ; at the head of the British line. 
Major Pitcairne is seen falling dead into the 
arms of his son ; and not far distant General 
Putnam is placed at the rear of our retreating 
troops, in the light blue and scarlet uniform 
he wore that day, with his head uncovered, 
and his sword waving towards the enemy, as it 
were to stop their impetuous pursuit. In nearly 
the same attitude he is exhibited by Barlow in 
that excellent poem, the Vision of Columbus. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 



IC^ 




BATTLE OF BUNKER-HILL AND DEATH OF 

AVARREN. 

" There strides bold Putnam, and from all the plains 
Calls the third host, the tardy rear sustains, 
And, 'mid the whizzing deaths that fill the air, 
Waves back his sword, and dares the foU'wing war."* 

* The writer of this Essay had occasion of remarking to the 
poet and the painter, while they were three thousancl miles 
distant from each other, at which distance they had formed 
and executed the plans of their respective productions, the si- 
milarity observable in their descriptions of General Putnam. 
These Chefs d'ccurres are mentioned not with a vain pre- 
sumption of adding eclat of duration to works which have re- 
ceived the seal of unmortality^ but because they preserve, in 
the sister arts, the same illustrious action of our hero. I per- 
suade myself I need not apologize for annexing the beautiful 
lines from the poem in question, on the death of General 
Warren. 

" There, hapless Warren, thy cold earth was seen ; 
There spring thy laurels in immortal green ; 
Dearest of Chiefs that ever press'd the plain, 
In freedom's cause, with early honours, slain, 
Still dear in death, as when in fight you mov'd, 
Ev hosts applauded and by heav'n approv'd ; 
The faithful muse shall tell the world thy fame, 
And unborn realms resound th' immortal name." 



104 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

After this action, the British strongly forti- 
fied themselves on the peninsulas of Boston 
and Charlestown ; while the provincials re- 
mained posted in the circumjacent country in 
such a manner as to form a blockade. In the 
bes^inning of July, General Washington, who 
had been constituted by Congress Command- 
er-in-chief of the American iforces, arrived at 
Cambridge, to take the command. Having 
formed the army into three grand divisions, 
consisting of about twelve regiments each, he 
appointed Major-General Ward to command 
the right wing, Major-General Lee the left 
wing, and Major-General Putnam the reserve. 
General Putnam's alertness in accelerating the 
construction of the necessary defences was par- 
ticularly noticed and highly approved by the 
Commander-in-chief* 

About the 20th of July, the declaration of 
Congress, setting forth the reasons of their ta- 
king up arms, was proclaimed at the head of 
the several divisions. It concluded with these 



* Washington and Putnam were unknown to each other 
till they met at Cambridge. The open, undisguised frankness 
of the latter, togeHier with his great activity and personal in- 
dustry, in every thing pertaining to the army, soon attracted 
the attention of the former; an early intimacy was formed, 
and a firm friendship established, which continued undisturbed 
during the whole period they were associated in service. It 
was not in Putnam's nature to be idle : inured to habits of in- 
dustry himself, no man was better calculated to make others 
so : and Washington observing the great progress that had 
been made in a short time, and with but few men, in raising a 
work of defence, said to him -" you seem to have, the faculty. 
General Putnam, of infusing vour own industrious spirit inla 
all the workmen you employ,^' {Editor.) 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. lOd 

patriotic and noble sentiments : " In our own 
native land, in defence of the freedom that is 
our birth-right, and which we ever enjoyed 
until the late violation of it ; for the protection 
of our property, acquired solely by the honest 
industry of oar forefathers and ourselves ; 
against violence actually offered, we have ta- 
ken up arms. We shall lay them down when 
hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggres- 
sors, and all danger of their being renewed 
shall be removed, and not before. 

"With an humble confidence in the mercies 
of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler 
of the universe, we most devoutly implore his 
divine goodness to conduct us happily through 
this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to 
reconciliation on reasonable terms, and, there- 
by, to relieve the empire from the calamities of 
civil war." 

As soon as these memorable words were pro- 
nounced to. General Putnam's division, which 
he had ordered to be paraded on Prospect-Hill, 
they shouted in three huzzas aloud, Amen ! 
whereat (a cannon from the fort being fired as 
a signal) the new Standard lately sent from 
Connecticut, was suddenly seen to rise and un- 
rol itself to the wind. On one side was inscri- 
bed, in large letters of gold, " An appeal to 
Heaven," and on the other were delineated 
the armorial bearings of Connecticut, which, 
without supporters or crest, consist, unostenta- 
tiously, of three Vines ; with this motto, '• Q,ui 



106 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

tra7ishdit, siistinet f'* alluding to the pious 
confidence our forefathers placed in the protec- 
tion of Heaven, on those three allegorical 

scions — KNOWLEDGE LIBERTY RELIGION— 

which they had been instrumental in trans- 
planting to America. 

The strength of position on the enemy's 
part, and want of ammunition on ours, pre- 
vented operations of magnitude from being at- 
tempted. Such diligence was used in fortify- 
ing our camps, and such precaution adopted to 
prevent surprise, as to ensure tranquillity to the 
troops during the winter. In the spring, a 
position was taken so menacing to the enemy, 
as to cause them, on the 17th of March, 1776, 
to abandon Boston, not without considerable 
precipitation and dereliction of royal stores.t 

* Literally, " He who transplanted them will support 
them." 

t In the expectation that the flower of the British troops 
would be employed against the Heights of Dorchester, (which 
had been taken possession of by the Americans on the night 
of the 4th of March, 1776,) General Washington had concerted 
a plan for availing himself of that occasion, to attack the town 
of Boston itself. Four thousand chosen men were held in rea- 
diness to embark at the mouth of Cambridge river, on a signal 
to be given, if the garrison should appear to be so weakened by 
the detachment made from it as to justify an assault. These 
troops were to embark in two divisions, the first to be led by 
Brigadier-General Sullivan, the second by Brigadier -General 
Greene, and the whole to be under the command of Major- 
General Putnam. The boats were to be preceded by three 
floating batteries, which were to keep up a heavy fire on that 
part of the town where the troops were to land. It was propo- 
sed that the first division should land at the powder-house, 
and gain possession of Beacon Hill ; the second at Barton's 
Point, or a little south of it, and after securing that post, to 
join the other division, force the enemy's works, and open the 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 107 

As a part of the hostile fleet Ungered for 
some time in Nantasket-Road, about nine miles 
below Boston, General Washington continued 
himself in Boston, not only to see the coast en- 
tirely clear, but also to make many indispensa- 
ble arrangements. His Excellency, proposing 
to leave Major-General Ward, with a few re- 
giments, to linish the fortifications intended as 
a security against an attack by water, in the 
mean time despatched the greater part of the 
army to New York, where it was most proba- 
ble the enemy would make a descent. Upon 
the sailing of a fleet with troops in the month 
of January, Major-General Lee had been sent 
to the defence of that city ; who, after having 
caused some works to be laid out, proceeded to 
follow that fleet to South Carolina. The Com- 
mander-in-chief was now exceedingly solicit- 
ous that these works should be completed as 
soon as possible, and accordingly gave the fol- 
lowing 

" Orders and Instriictioiis for Major- General 
Putnam. 
" As there are the best reasons to believe 
that the enemy's fleet and army, which left 
Nantasket-Road last Wednesday evening, are 
bound to New York, to endeavour to possess 
that important post, and, if possible, to secure 
the communication by Hudson's river to Ca- 
nada, it must be our care to prevent them from 

gates in order to give admission to the troops from Roxbury. 
{Editor.) 



108 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

accomplishing their designs. To that end 1 
have detached Brigadier-General Heath, with 
the whole body of riflemen, and five battalions 
of the Continental army, by the way of Norwich, 
in Connecticut, to New York. These, by an 
express arrived yesterday from General Heath, 
I have reason to believe, are in New York. Six 
more battalions, under General Sullivan, march 
this morning by the same route, and will, I 
hope, arrive there in eight or ten days at far- 
thest. The rest of the army will immediately 
follow in divisions, leaving only a convenient 
space between each division, to prevent confu- 
sion, and want of accommodation upon their 
march. You will, no doubt, make the best 
despatch in getting to New York. Upon your 
arrival there, you will assume the command, 
and immediately proceed in continuing to exe- 
cute the plan proposed by Major-General Lee, 
for fortifying that city, and securing the passes 
of the East and North rivers. If, upon consulta- 
tion with the Brigadiers General and Engineers, 
any alteration in that jdan is thought neces- 
sary, you are at liberty to make it : cautiously 
avoiding to break in too much upon his main 
design, unless where it may be apparently neces- 
sary so to do, and that by the general voice 
and opinion of the gentlemen above mentioned. 
"You will meet the Gluarter-Master-General, 
Colonel Mifflin, and Commissary-General,* at 

* Colonel Joseph Trumbull, eldest son fo the Governor of 
that name. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 109 

New York. As these are both men of excellent 
talents in their diiferent departments, you will 
do well to give them all the authority and 
assistance they require : and should a council 
of war be necessary, it is my direction they 
assist at it. 

" Ifour lons^ service and experience will, 
better than my particular directions at this dis- 
tance, point out to you the works most proper 
to be first raised ; and your perseverance; ac- 
tivity, and zeal, will lead you, without my 
recommending it, to exert every nerve to disap- 
point the enemy's designs. 

" Devoutly praying that the power which 
has hitherto sustained the American arms, may 
continue to bless them with the divine protec- 
tion, I bid you — farewell. 

"Given at Head-Quarters, in Cambridge, 
this twenty-ninth of March, 1776. 

" G. Washington." 

Invested with these commands. General 
Putnam travelled by long and expeditious sta- 

fes to New York. His first precaution, upon 
is arrival, was to prevent disturbance, or sur- 
prise in the night season. With these objects 
in view, after posting the necessary guards, he 
issued his orders.* He instituted, likewise, 

* general orders. 

'' Head- Quarters, New York, April 5, 1776. 
'The soldiers are strictly enjoined to retire to their barracki 
and quarters at tattoo-beating, and to remain there until th# 
if^veilla is beat. 



110 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

Other wholesome regulations to meliorate the 
police of the troops, and to preserve the good 
agreement that subsisted between them and the 
citizens. 

Notwithstanding the war had now raged, in 
other parts, with unaccustomed severity for 
nearly a 3^ear, yet the British ships at New 
York, one of which had once fired upon the 
town to intimidate the inhabitants, found the 
means of being supplied with fresh Avater and 
provisions. General Putnam resolved to adopt 
effectual measures for putting a period to this 
intercourse, and accordingly expressed his pro- 
hibition* in the most pointed terms. 

Nearly at the same moment, a detachment of 

"Necessity obliges the General to desire the inhabitants of 
the city to observe the same rule, as no person will be permit- 
ted to pass any sentry after this night, without the counter- 
sign. 

' The inhabitants, whose business require it, may know the 
countersign, by applying to any of the Brigade- Majors." 

* PROHIBITION. 

"■ Head- Quarters, New York, Aprils, 1776. 
"The General informs the inhabitants, that it is become 
absolutely necessary that all communication between the 
ministerial fleet and the shore, should be immediately stopped ; 
for that purpose he has given positive orders, the ships should 
no longer be furnished with provisions. Any inhabitants, or 
others, who shall be taken, that have been on board, after the 
publishing this order, or near any of the ships, or going on 
board, will be considered as enemies, and treated accordingly. 

"All boats are to sail from Betkman slip. Captain Jamea 
AIner is appointed inspector, and will give permits to oyster- 
men. It IS ordered and expected that none attempt goirig 
without a pass. 

" ISRAEL PUTNAM, 
" Major-General_ in the Continental army, and eommand- 
er-in-chief of the forces in New York." 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. Ill 

a thousand continentals was sent to occupy 
Governor's Island, a reo:iment to fortify Red 
Hook, and some companies of riflemen to the 
Jersey shore. Of two boats, belonging to two 
armed vessels, which attempted to take on 
board fresh water from the watering place on 
Staten Island, one was driven oif by the rifle- 
men, with two or three seamen killed in it, and 
the other captured with thirteen. A few days 
afterwards. Captain Vandeput, of the Asia man 
of war, the senior officer of the ships on this 
station, finding the intercourse with the shore 
interdicted, tlieir limits contracted, and that no 
good purposes could be answered by remaining 
there, sailed, with all the armed vessels, out of 
the harbour. These arrangfements and transac- 
tions, joined to an urn*emitting attention to the 
completion of the defences, gave full scope to 
the activity of General Putnam, until the arri- 
val of General Washington, which happened 
about the middle of April. 

The Commander-in-chief, in his first public 
orders, " complimented the officers who had 
successively co?nmanded at New York, and 
returned his thanks to them, as well as to the 
officers and soldiers under their command, for 
the many works of defence which had been so 
expeditious^ erected : at the same time he ex- 
pressed an expectation that the same spirit of 
zeal for the service would continue to animate 
their future conduct." Putnam, who was then 
the only Major-General with the main army, 
H 



112 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

had still a chief agency in forwarding the forti- 
fications, and, with the assistance of the Briga- 
diers Spencer and Lord Stirling, in assigning to 
the different corps their alarm posts. 

Congress having intimated a desire of con- 
sulting with the Commander-in-chief, on the 
critical posture of affairs, his Excellency re- 
paired to Philadelphia accordingly, and was 
absent from tlie twenty-first of May, until the 
sixth of June. General Putnam, who com- 
manded in that interval, had it in charge to 
open all letters directed to General Washington, 
on public service, and, if important, after regu- 
lating his CO]] duct by their contents, to forward 
them by express ; to expedite the works then 
erecting ; to begin others vv^hich were specified ; 
to estabhsh signals for communicating an 
alarm ; to guard against the possibility of sur- 
prise ; to secure well the powder magazine ; to 
augment, by every means in his power, the 
quantity of cartridges ; and to send Brigadier- 
General Lord Stirling to put the posts in the 
Highlands into a proper condition of defence. 
He had also a private and confidential instruc- 
tion, to afford Avhatever aid might be required 
by the provincial congress of New- York, for 
apprehending certain of their disaffected citi- 
zens ; and as it would be most convenient to 
take the detachment for this service from the 
troops on Long Island, under the command of 
Brigadier-General Greene, it was recommended 
that this officer should be advised of the plan, 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 113 

and that the execution sliould be conducted 
with secrecy and celerity, as well as with de- 
cency and good order. In the records of the 
army, are preserved the daily orders which 
were issued in the a^bsence of the Commander- 
in-chief, who, on his return, was not only satis- 
fied that the works had been prosecuted with 
all possible despatch, but also that the other 
duties had been properly discharged. 

It was the latter end of June, when the Bri- 
tish fleet, which had been at Halifax, waiting 
for re-enforcements from Europe, began to ar- 
rive at New- York. To obstruct its passage, 
some marine preparations had been made. 
General Putnam, to whom the direction of the 
whale-boats, fire-rafts, flat -bottomed boats, and 
armed vessels, was committed, aflbrded his 
patronage to a project for destroying the ene- 
my's shipping by explosion. A machine^ alto- 
gether ditlerent from any thing hitherto devised 
by the art of man, had been invented by Mr. 
David Bushnell,* for svh-marine navigatiG}}. 

* David Bushnell, A. M., of Saybrook, in Connecticut, in- 
vented several other machines for the annoyance of shipping; 
these, from accidents, not mihtating against the philosophical 
principles on which their success depended, only partially suc- 
ceeded. He destroyed a vessel in the charge of Commodore 
Svmmonds, Avhose report to the Admiral was published. One 
of his kegs also demolished a vessel near the Long Island 
phore. About Christmas, 1777, he committed to the Delaware 
a number of kegs, destined to fall among the British fleet at 
Philadelphia: but his squadron of kegs, having been separated 
and retarded by the ice, demoHshed but a single boat. Tins 
catastrophe, however, produced an alarm, unprecedented in its 
nature and degree ; which has been so happily descnbed m the 
subsequent song, by the Hon. Francis Hopkinson, that the 



114 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOIT?? 

which was found to answer the purpose per- 
fectly, of rowing horizontally at any given 
depth under water, and of rising or sinking at 
pleasure. To tJiis niachiuc, called the Ame- 

event it celebrates will not be forgotten, so long as man- 
kind shall continue to be delighted with works of humour and 
taste. 

THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS.-Jl Song. 
[Tmie, Moggy LmcderJ] 

Gallants, attend, and hear a friend 

Thrill forth harmonious ditty : 
Strange things I'll tell, which late befell 

In Philadelphia city. 

'Twas early day, as poets say, 

Just when the sun was rising, 
A soldier stood on log of wood, 

And saw a sight surprising. 

As in a maze he stood to gaze, 

The truth can't be denied. Sir, 
He spied a score of kegs or more, 

Come floating down the tide. Sir. 

A sailor, too, in jerkin blue, 

The strange appeararice viewing, 
First damn'd his eyes, in great surprise, 

Then said—" Some mischief's brewing. 

These kegs now hold the rebels bold, 

Pack'd up like pickled herring ; 
And they're come down t' attack the town 

In this new way of ferry'ng." 

The soldier flew ; the sailor too ; 

And, scar'd almost to death. Sir, 
Wore out their shoes to spread the news, 

And ran till out of breath, Sir. 

Now up and down, throughout the town, 

Most frantic scenes were acted ; 
And some ran here, and some ran there, 

Like men almost distracted. 

Some fire cried, which some denied, 

But said the earth had quaked : 
And girls and boys, with hideous noisff, -f 

Ran through the town half naked. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 115 

rican Turtle, was attached a magazine of 
■poivder^ which it was intended to be fastened 
under the bottom of a ship, with a driving 
screw, in such sort, that the same stroke which 
disengaged it from the machine, should put the 
internal clockwork in motion. This being done, 

Sir William* he, snug as a flea, 

Lay all this time a snoring; 
Nor dreamt of harm, as he lay warm 

In bed with Mrs. L*r*ng. 

Now in a fright, he starts upright, 

Awak'd bv such a clatter : 
He rubs botn eyes, and boldly cries, 

" For God's sake, what's the matterT' 

At his bedside he then espied 

Sir Erskinet at command. Sir ; 
Upon one foot he had one boot. 

And t'other in his hand, Sir. 

" Arise ! arise !" Sir Erskine cries ; 

" The rebels — more's the pity — 
Without a boat, are all on float, 

And rang'd before the city. 

" The motley crew, in vessels new. 

With Satan for their guide, Sir, 
Pack'd up in bags, or wooden kegs, 

Come driving down the tide, Sir : 

" Therefore prepare for bloody war ; 

These kegs must all be routed. 
Or surely we despis'd shall be. 

And British courage doubted." 

The Royal band now ready stand, 

All rang'd in dread array, Sir, 
With stomachs stout, to see it out. 

And make a bloody day, Sir. 

The cannons roar from shore to shore, 

The small arms make a rattle: 
Since wars began, I'm sure no man 

E'er saw so strange a battle. 

♦ Sir William Howe. 
t Sir Williavi Erskine. 



116 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

the ordinary operation of a gun-lock at the dis- 
tance of half an hour, an hour, or any determi- 
nate time, would cause the powder to explode, 
and leave the effects to the common laws of na- 
ture. The simplicity, yet combination disco- 
vered in the mechanism of this v/onderful ma- 
chine, were acl^inovvledged by those skilled in 
physics, and particularly hydraulics, to be not less 
ino:enious than novel. .The inventor, whose con- 
stitution was too feeble to permit liim to perform 

The rebel* vales, the rebel dales, 

With rebel trees surrounded, 
The distant woods, the hills and floods, 

With rebel echoes sounded. 

The fish below swam to and fro, 

Attack'd from every quarter : 
" Why sure," thought they, " the Devil's to pay 

Mong'st folks above the water." 

The kegs, 'tis said, though strongly made 

Of rebel staves and hoops, Sir, 
Could not oppose their pow'rful foes, 

The conqu'ring British troops, Sir. 

From morn to night those men of might, 

Display'd amazing courage: 
And when the sun was fairly down, 

Retir'd to sup their porridge. 

An hundred men, with each a pen, 

Or more, upon my word, Sir, 
It is most true, would be too few 

Their valour to record, Sir. 

Such feats did they perform that day, 

Upon those wicked kegs, Sir, 
That years to come, if they get home, 
They'll make their boasts and brags. Sir. 
Mr. Bushnell, having been highly recommended for his ta- 
lents by President Stiles, General Parsons, and some other 
gentlemen of science, was appointed a captain in the corps of 
sappers and miners : in which capacity he continued to serve 
with that corps until the conclusion of the war, 

* The Britisk officers were so fond of the word rebel, that 
they often applied it most absurdly. 



OF MAJOil-GENERAL PUTNAM. 117 

the labour of rowiii": the Turtle, had taught his 
brother to manage it with perfect dexterity; but 
unfortunately his brother fell sick of a fever just 
before the arrival of the fleet. Recourse was 
therefore had to a sergeant in the Connecticut 
troops ; who, having received v^hatever instruc- 
tions could be communicated to him in a short 
time, went, too late in the night, with all the 
apparatus, under the bottom of the Eagle, a 
sixty-four gun ship, on board of which the 
British Admiral, Lord Howe, commanded. In 
coming up, the screw that had been calculated 
to T^erforate tne copper sheathing, unluckily 
struck against some iron plates where the rud- 
der is connected with the stern. This accident, 
added to the strength of the tide which pre- 
vailed, and the want of adequate skill in the 
sergeant, occasioned such delay, that the dawn 
began to appear, whereupon he abandoned the 
magazine to chance, and after gaining a proper 
distance, for the sake of expedition, rowed on 
the surface towards the town. General Put- 
nam, who had been on the wharf anxiously 
expecting the result, from the first glimmering 
of light, beheld the machine near Governor's 
Island and sent a whale-boat to bring it on 
shore. In about twenty n.inutes afterwards the 
magazine exploded, and blew a vast column of 
water to an amazing height in the air. As the 
whole business had been kept an inviolable se- 
cret, he was not a little diverted with the various 
conjectures, whether this stupendous noise was 



118 LIFE, ANECDOTCSj AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

produced by a bomb, a meteor, a water-spout, 
or an earthquake. Other operations of a most 
serious nature rapidly succeeded, and prevented 
a repetition of the experiment. 

On the twenty-second day of August, the 
van of t]ie British landed on Long Island, and 
was soon followed by the v/hole army, except 
one brigade of Hessians, a small body of British, 
and some convalescents, left on Staten Island. 
Our troops on Long Island had been command- 
ed during the summer by Genera'. Greene, who 
was now sick ; and General Putnam took the 
command but two days before the battle of 
Flatbush. The instructions to him, pointing 
in the first place to decisive expedients for sup- 
pressing the scattering, unmeaning, and waste- 
ful fire of our men, contained regulations for 
the service of the s^uards, the brigadiers, and 
the field-officers of the day; for the appointment 
and encouragement of proper scouts, as well as 
for keeping the men constantly at their posts ; 
for preventing the burning of buildings, except it 
should be necessary for military purposes, and 
for preserving private property from pillage 
and destruction. To these regulations were 
added in a more dift'use, though not less spi- 
rited and professional style, reflections on the 
distinction of an army from a mob ; with exhort- 
ations for the soldiers to conduct themselves 
manfully in such a cause, and for their com- 
mander to oppose the enemy's approach with 
detachments of his best troops ; while he should 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 119 

endeavour to render their advance more diffi- 
cult by constructing abaltis, and to entrap their 
parties by forming ambuscades. General Put- 
nam was within the lines, when an engagement 
took place on the 27th, between the British ar- 
my and our advanced corps, in which we lost 
about a thousand men in killed and missing, 
with the Generals Sullivan and Lord Stirling 
made prisoners, i ■ ut our men, thou:;h attacked 
on all sides, fought with great bravery; and the 
enemy's loss was not light. 

The unfortunate battle of Long Island, the 
masterly retreat from thence, and the actual 
passage of part of the hostile fleet in the East 
river, above the tovNm, preceded the evacuation 
of New- York. A promotion of four major- 
generals, and six iDrigadiers, had previously 
been made by Congress. After the retreat from 
Long Island, the main army, consisting, for the 
moment, of sixty battalions, of which twenty 
were Continental, the residue levies and militia, 
was, conformably to the exigencies of the ser- 
vice, rather than to the rules of war, formed 
into fourteen brigades; Major-General Putnam 
commanded the right grand division of five 
brigades, the Majors-General Spencer and 
Greene the centre of . ix brigades, and Major- 
General Heath the left, which was posted near 
Kingsbridge, and composed of two brigades. 
The whole never amounted to twenty thousand 
effective men ; while the British and German 
forces, under Sir WilUam Howe, exceeded 



120 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

tv\^enty-two thousand : indeed, the minister had 
asserted in parh'ament that they would consist 
of more than thirty thousand. Our two centre 
divisions, both commanded by General Spencer, 
in the sickness of General Greene, moved to- 
wards i\iount Washington, Hariaem Heights, 
and Horn's Hook, as soon as the final resolu- 
tion was taken in a council of war, on the 
twelfth of September, to abandon the city. 
That event, thus circumstanced, took effect a 
few days after. 

On Sunday, the fifteenth, the British, after 
sending three ships of war up the North River, 
to Bloomingdale, and keaping up, for some 
hours, a severe cannonade on our lines, from 
those already in the East River, landed in force 
at Turtle Bay. Our new levies, commanded 
by a state brigadier-general, fied without mak- 
mg resistance. Two brigades of General Put- 
nam's division, ordered to their support, not- 
withstanding the exertion of their brigadiers, 
and of the commander-in-chief himself, who 
came up at the instant, conducted themselves 
in the same shameful manner. His excellency 
then ordered the Heiglits of Hariaem, a strong 
position, to be occupied. Thither the forces 
in the vicinity, as well as the fugitives, re- 
paired. In the mean time General Putnam, 
with the remainder of his command, and the 
ordinary out-posts, was in the city. After 
having caused the brigades to begin their re- 
treat by the route of Bloomingdale, in order to 



OF MAJOR-GENKRAL PUTNAM. 121 

avoid the enemy, who were then in the posses- 
sion of the main road leading to King's-bridge, 
he galloped to call off the pickets and guards. 
Having myself been a volunteer in his division, 
and acting adjutant to the last regiment that 
left the city, I had frequent opportunities, that 
day, of beholding him, for the purpose of issu- 
ing orders, and encouraging the troops, flying, 
on his horse covered with foam, wherever his 
presence was most necessary. Without his 
extraordinary exertions, the guards must have 
been inevitably lost, and it is probable the en- 
tire corps would have been cut in pieces. — 
When we were not far from Bloomingdale, an 
aid-de-camp came from him at full speed, to 
inform that a column of British infantry was 
descending upon our right. Our rear was soon 
fired upon, and the colonel of our regiment, 
whose order was just communicated for the 
front to file off to the left, was killed on the spot. 
With no other loss we joined the army, after 
dark, on the Heights of Harlaem. 

Before our brigades came in, we were given 
up for lost by all our friends. So critical in- 
deed was our situation, and so narrow the gap 
by which we escaped, that, the instant we had 
passed, the enemy closed it by extending their 
line from river to river. Our men, who had 
been fifteen hours under arms, harassed by 
marching and countermarching, in consequence 
of incessant alarms, exhausted as they were by 
heat and thirst, (for the day proved in support- 
6 



122 LIFEj ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

iibly hot, and few or none had canteens, inso- 
much, that some died at the brooks where they 
drank,) if attacked, could have made but feeble 
resistance. 

If we take into consideration the debihtating 
sickness which weakened ahuost all our troops, 
the hard duty by which they were worn down 
in constructing numberless defences, the con- 
tinual want of rest they had suffered since the 
enemy landed, in guarding from nocturnal sur- 
prise, the despondency infused into their minds 
,by an insular situation, and a consciousness of 
inferiority to the enemy in discipline, together 
with the disadvantageous terms upon which, 
in their state of separation, they might have 
been forced to engage, it appears highly proba- 
ble that day would have presented an easy vic- 
tory to the British. On the other side, the 
American commander-in-chief had wisely coun- 
tenanced an opinion, then universally credited, 
that our army was three times more numerous 
than it was in reality. It is not a subject for 
astonishment, that the British, ignorant of the 
existing circumstances, imposed upon as to the 
numbers by reports, and recollecting what a 
few brave men, slightly intrenched, had per- 
fofmed at Bunker Hill, should proceed with 
great circumspection. For their reproaches, 
that the rebels, as they affected to style us, 
loved digging better than fighting, and that 
they earthed themselves in holes like foxes, 
but ill concealed at the bottom of their own 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 1^3 

hearts the profound impression that action had 
made. Cheap and contemptible as we had 
once seemed in their eyes, it had taught them 
to hold us in som.e respect. This respect, in 
conjunction with a fixed belief, that the en- 
thusiastic spirit of our opposition must soon 
subside, and that the inexhaustible resources 
of Britain would ultimately triumph, without 
leaving any thing to chance, (not the avarice 
or treachery of the British general, as the fac- 
tious of his own nation wished to insinuate,) 
retarded their operation, and afforded us leisure 
to rescue from annihilation the miserable relics 
of an army, hastening to dissolution by the ex- 
piration of enlistments, and the country itself 
from irretrievable subjugation. In truth, we 

ARE NOT LESS INDEBTED TO THE MATTOCK 
AT ONE PERIOD, THAN TO THE MUSKET AT 
ANOTHER, FOR OUR POLITICAL SALVATION. 

It required great talents to determine when 
one or the other was most profitably to be em- 
ployed. I am aware how fashionable it has 
become to compare the American commander- 
in-chief, for the prudence displayed in those 
dilatory and defensive operations, so happily 
prosecuted in the early stages of the war, to 
the illustrious Roman, who acquired immor- 
tality in restoring the commonwealth by delay. 
Advantageous and flattering as the comparison 
at first appears, it will be found, on examina- 
tion, to stint the American Fabius to the 
smaller moiety of his merited fame, Did he 



124 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

not, ill scenes of almost unparalleled activity, 
discover specimens of transcendent abilities : 
and might it not be proved, to professional 
men, that boldness in council, and rapidity in 
execution, were, at least, equally with prudent 
procrastination, and the quality of not being 
compelled to action, attributes of his military 
genius ? This, however, was an occasion, as 
apparent as pressing, for attaining his object 
6y delay. From that he had every thing to 
gain, nothing to lose. Yet there were not 
wanting politicians, at this very time, 
who querulously blamed these Fabian mea- 
sures, and loudly clamoured that tlie immense 
labour and expense bestowed on the fortifica- 
tion of New -York, had been thrown away ; 
that if we could not face the enemy there after 
so many preparations, we might as well relin- 
quish the contest at once, for we could no 
where make a stand ; and that if General 
Washington, with an army of sixty thousand 
men, strongly intrenched, declined fighting 
with Sir William Howe, who had little more 
than one third of that number, it was not to be 
expected he would find any other occasion that 
might induce him to engage. But General 
Washington, content to suffer a temporary sa- 
crifice of personal reputation, for the sake of 
securing a permanent advantage to his coun- 
try, and regardless of those idle clamours for 
which he had furnished materials, by makiufr 
his countrymen, in order the more eflfectualiy 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 125 

to make his enemy believe his force much 
greater than it actually was, inflexibly pursued 
his system, and gloriously demonstrated how 
poor and pitiful, in the estimation of a great 
MIND, are the censorious strictures of those 
novices in war and politics, who, with equal 
rashness and impudence, presume to decide 
dogmatically on the merit of plans they could 
neither originate or comprehend ! 

That night our soldiers, excessively fatigued 
by the sidtry march of the day, their clothes 
wet by a severe shower cf rain that succeeded 
towards the evening, their blood chilled by the 
cold wind that produced a sudden change in 
the temperature of the air, and their hearts 
sunk within them by the loss of baggage, artil- 
lery, and works in which they had been taught 
to put great confidence, lay upon their arms, 
covered only by the clouds of an uncomforta- 
ble sky. To retrieve our disordered affairs, 
and prevent the enemy from profiting b}?- them, 
no exertion was relaxed, no vigilance remitted, 
on the part of our higher officers. The regi- 
ments which had been least exposed to fatigue 
that day, furnished the necessary pickets to 
secure the army from surprise. Those whose 
military lives had been short and unpractised, 
felt enough besides lassitude of body to disquiet 
the tranquillity of their repose. Nor had those 
who were older in service, and of more expe- 
rience, any subject for consolation. The 
warmth of enthusiasm seemed to be extin- 



126 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

guished. The force of discipline had not suf- 
ficiently occupied its place to give men a de- 
pendence upon each other. We were appa- 
rently about to reap the bitter fruits of that 
jealous policy, which some leading men, with 
the best motives, had sown in our federal 
councils, when tliey caused the mode to be 
adopted, for carrying on the war by detach- 
ments of militia, from apprehension that an 
established continental army, after defending 
the country against foreign invasion, might 
subvert its liberties themselves. Paradoxical 
as it will appear, it may be profitable to be 
known to posterity, that while our very exist- 
ence as an independent people was in question, 
the patriotic jealousy for the safety of our fu- 
ture freedom had been carried to such a vir- 
tuous but dangerous excess, as well nigh to 
preclude the attainment of our independence. 
Happily that limited and hazardous system 
soon gave room to one more enlightened and 
salutary. This may be attributed to the re- 
iterated arguments, the open remonstrances, 
and the confidential communications of the 
commander-in-chief; who, tliough not apt to 
despair of the republic, on this occasion ex- 
pressed himself in terms of unusual desponden- 
cy. He declared, in his letters, that he found, 
to his utter astonishment and mortification, 
that no reliance could be placed on a great pro- 
portion of his present troops, and that, unless 
efficient measures for establishing a permanent 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 127' 

force should be speedily pursued, we had every 
reason to fear the fmal rum of our cause. 

Next morning several parties of the enemy 
appeared upon the plains in our front. On 
receiving this intelligence. General Washing- 
ton rode quickly to the outposts, for the pur- 
pose of preparing against an attack, if the 
enemy should advance with that design. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Knowlton's rangers, a hne 
selection from the eastern regiments, who had 
been skirmishing with an advanced party, 
came in, and informed the general that a 
body of British were under cover of a small 
eminence at no considerable distance. His 
excellency, willing to raise our men from their 
dejection by the splendour of some little suc- 
cess, ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Knowlton, 
with his rangers, and Major Leitch, with three 
companies of Weedon's regiment of Yirgi- 
nians, to gain their rear ; Avhile appearances 
should be made of an attack in front. As 
soon as the enemy saw the party sent to de- 
coy them, they ran precipitately down the hill, 
took possession of some fences and bushes, and 
commenced a brisk firing at long shot. Un- 
fortunately Knowlton and Leitch made their 
onset rather in flank than in rear. The enemy 
changed their front, and the skirmish at once 
became close and warm. Major Leitch* hav- 
ing received three balls through his side, was 

* Major Leiteli, after languishing some days, died of a locked 

J.W. ^ 



128 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

soon borne from the field ; and Colonel Knowl- 
ton, who had distingnished himself so gallant- 
ly at the battle of Bunker-Hill, was mortally 
wounded immediately after. Their men, how- 
ever, undaunted by these disasters, stimulated 
with the thirst of reveuge for the loss of their 
leaders, and conscious of acting under the eye 
of the Commander in-chief, maintained the 
conflict with uncommon spirit and perseve- 
rance. But the general seeing them in need of 
support, advanced part of the Maryland regi- 
ments of Griffith and Richardson, together witli 
some detachments from such eastern corps as 
chanced to be most contiguous to the place of 
action. Our troops this day, without excep- 
tion, behaved with the greatest intrepidity. So 
bravely did they repulse the British, that Sir 
A^'illiam Howe moved his reserve^ with two 
field pieces, a baitalion of Hessian grenadiers, 
and a company of Chasseurs, to succour his 
retreating troops. General Washington, not 
willing to draw on a general action, declined 
pressing the pursuit. In tliis engagement were 
the second and third battalions of light infan- 
try, the forty-second British regiment, a.nd the 
German Chasseurs, of wliom eight officers, 
and upwards of seventy privates, were wound- 
ed, and our people buried nearly twenty, 
who were left dead on the field. We had 
about forty wounded : our loss in killed, ex- 
cept of two valuable officers, was very incon- 
siderable. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. l29 

An advantage,* so trivial in itself, produced, 
in event, a surprising and almost incredible ef- 
fect upon the whole army. Amongst the troops 
not engaged, who, during the action, were 
throwing earth from the new trenches, with 
an alacrity that indicated a determination to 
defend them, every visage was seen to bright- 
en, and to assume, instead of the gloom of de- 
spair, the glow of animation. This change, 
no less sudden than happy, left little room to 
doubt that the men, who ran the day before at 
the siglit of an enemy, would now, to wipe 
away the stain of that disgrace, and to recover 
the confidence of their general, have conduct- 
ed themselves in a very different manner. 
Some alteration was made in the distribution 



* A transcript from General Washington's Public Orders of 
the seventeenth will, better than any other document that 
could be adduced, show his sentiment on the conduct of the 
two preceding days, and how fervenlly he wished to foster the 
good dispositions discovered oii the last. 

"ORDERS. 

^'' Head- Quarters, Harlaem. Heighlft, September 17, 1776. 
" Parole, Zv€'7t7(. Countersign, Vlri(inia. 

"The Genernl most heartily thanks the troops commanded 
yesterday by Major Leitch, who first advanced upon the ene- 
my, and the others who so resuli'tely supported them. The 
])ehaviour yesterday wa^ such a contrast to that of some of 
the troops the day before, as must show what may be done, 
•where officers and soldiers v, ill exert thernpelves. Once more, 
therefore, the General calls v.pon officers and men, to act up 
to the noble cause in which they are engaged, and to support 
the honour and liberties of their country. 

"The gallant and brave Colonel Knowlton, who would have 
been an honour to any country, having fallen yesterday, while 
gloriously fighting, Captain Brov/n is to take the command of 
tlie party lately led by Colonel Knowlton. Officers and men 
are to obey him accordingly." 

6* 



130 LIFE, 

of corps, to prevent the British from gaining 
either flank in the succeeding night. General 
Putnam, who commanded on the right, was 
directed in orders, in case the enemy should 
attempt to force the pass, to apply for a re-en- 
forcement to General Spencer, who command- 
ed on the left. 

General Putnam, who was too gcod a hus- 
bandman himself not to have a respect for the 
labours and improvements of others, strenuous- 
ly seconded the views of the Commander-in- 
chief in preventing the devastation of farms, 
and the violation of private property. For un- 
der pretext that the property in tliis quarter be- 
longed to friends to the British government, as 
indeed it mostly did, a spirit of rapine and li- 
centiousness began to prevail, which, u.nless 
repressed in the beginning, foreboded, besides 
the subversion of discipline, the disgrace and 
defeat of our arms. 

Onr new defences now becoming so strong 
as not to admit insult with impunity, and Sir 
William Howe, not choosing to place too much 
at risk in attacking us in front, on the 12th 
day of October, leaving Lord Percy with one 
Hessian and two British brigades, in his lines 
at Harlaem, to cover New York, embarked 
with the main body of his army, with an in- 
tention of landing at 71irog''s Neck, situated 
near West-Chester, and little more than a 
league above the communication called King's- 
bridge, which connects New York Island with 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 131 

the main. There was nothing to oppose him ; 
and he effected his debarkation ])y nine o'clock 
in the morning. The same pohcy of keeping 
our army as compact as possible ; the same 
system of avoiding being forced to action ; and 
the same precaution to prevent the interruption 
of supplies, re-enforcements or retreat, that late- 
ly dictated the evacuation of New York, now 
induced General Washington to move towards 
the strong grounds in the upper part of West- 
Chester county. 

General Putnam was with the amiy at 
White-Plains, and took part in the action 
fought there the 28th of October. It was the 
position of Brigadier-General M'Uougal which 
was attacked, and Washington ordered a de- 
tachment of the army under Major-General 
Putnam to support him. Some days after this 
action. General Putnam was ordered to cross 
the Hudson, and provide against an irruption 
of the enemy into New Jersey. He was soon 
followed by "Washington with part of his ar- 
my, which took post in the vicinity of Fort Lee, 
and, after the fall of that Fort, General Putnam 
was constantly about his person during the 
whole retreat through New Jersey, and among 
the last of the fugitive army which crossed the 
Delaware. He was then ordered to Philadel- 
phia to fortify and defend that city, which Con- 
gress had ordered to be defended to the last ex- 
tremity. 

Without stopping to dilate on the subsequent 



132 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

incidents, that might swell a folio, tliong^h here 
compressed to a single paragraph ; without at- 
tempting to give in detail the sldlful retrograde 
movements of our Commander-in-chief, who^ 
after detaching a garrison for Fort Washing- 
ton, by pre-occnpying with extemporaneous re- 
doubts and intrenchments, the ridges from 
Mile-Square to WhUe-Plains, and by folding 
one brigade behind another, in rear of those 
ridges that run parallel with the Sound. 
brought off all his artillery, stores, and sick, in 
the face of a superior foe ; without comment- 
ing on the partial and equivocal battle fought 
near the last mentioned village, or the cause 
why the British, then in full force, (for the last 
of the Hessian infantry and British light-horse 
had just arrived,) did not more seriously en- 
deavour to induce a sreneral enoag"ement ; 
without journalizing their military mana3uvres 
in falling back to King's-bridge, capturing Fort 
Washington, Fort Lee, and marchino- through 
the Jerseys ; without enumerating the instan- 
ces of rapine, murder, lus;t, and devastation, 
that marked their progress, and filled our bo- 
soms with horror and indignation ; vv^ithout de- 
scribing how a division of our dissolving army, 
with General Washington, was driven before 
them beyond the Delaware ; without painting 
the naked and forlorn condition of these much 
injured men, amidst the rigours of an inclement 
season ; and without even sketching the con- 
sternation that seized the States at this perilous 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 133 

period, when General Lee, in leading from the 
north a small re-enforcement to our troops, was 
himself taken prisoner by surprise ; when eve- 
ry thing seemed decidedly declining to the last 
extremity, and when every prospect but served 
to augment the depression of despair — until the 
genius of one man, in one day, at a single 
stroke, wrested from the veteran battalions of 
Britain and Germany the fruits acquired by the 
total operations of a successful campaign, and 
re-animated the expiring hope of a whole na- 
tion, by the glorious enterprise at Trenton. 

While the hostile forces, rashly inflated with 
pride by a series of uninterrupted successes, 
and fondly dreaming that a period would soon 
be put to their labours, by tlie completion of 
their conquests, had been pursuing the wretch- 
ed remnants of a disbanded army to the banks 
of the Delaware, General Putnam was diligent- 
ly employed in fortifying Philadelphia, the cap- 
ture of which appeared indubitably to be their 
principal object. Here, by authority and ex- 
ample, he strove to conciliate contending fac-- 
tions, and to excite the citizens to uncommon 
efforts in defence of every thing interesting to 
freemen. His personal industry was unparal- 
leled. His orders,* with respect to extinguish- 

* As a specimen, the following is preserved ; 

" GENERAL ORDERS. 

'' Head- Quarters, PhUadelphia, December 14, 1776. 

"Colonel Griffin is appointed Adjutant-General to the 

troops m and about this city. All orders from the General, 



134 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

ing accidental fires, advancing the public 
works, as well as in regard to other important 
objects, were perfectly mihtary and proper. 
But his health was, for a while, impaired by his 
unrelaxed exertions. 

The Commander-in-chief, having in spite of all 
obstacles, made good his retreat over the Dela- 
ware, v/rote to General Putnam from his camp 
above the falls of Trenton, on the very day he 
re-crossed the river to surprise the Hessians, 
expressing his satisfaction at the re-establish- 
ment of that General's health, and informing, 
that if he had not himself been well convinced 
before, of the enemy's intention to possess 
themselves of Philadelphia, as soon as the frost 
should form ice strong enough to transport them 
and their artillery across the Delaware, he had 
now obtained an intercepted letter, which placed 
the matter beyond a doubt. He added, that if 
the citizens of Philadelphia had any regard for 
the town, not a moment's time was to be lost 
until it should be put in the best possible pos- 
ture of defence ; but lest tliat should not be 



through him, either written or verbal, are to be strictly attend- 
ed to and punctually obeyed. 

"In case of an alarm of fire, the city guards and patroles 
are to suffer the inhabitants to pass, unmolested, at any hour 
of the night ; and the good people of Philadelphia are earnestly 
requested and desired to give every assistance in their power. 
with engines and buckets, to extinguish the fire. And as the 
Congress have ordered the city to be defended to the last extre- 
mity, the General hopes that no person will refuse to give every 
assistance possible to complete the fortifications that are to ba 
«rected in and about the city. 

'ISRAEL PUTNAM." 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PrTNAM. 135 

done, he directed the removal of all public 
stores, except provisions necessary for imme- 
diate use, to places of greater security. He 
queried whether, if a party of militia could be 
sent from Philadelphia to support those in the 
Jerseys, about Mount Holly, it would not serve 
to save them from submission'.^ At the same 
time he signified, as his opinion, the expediency 
of sending an active and influential officer to 
inspirit the people, to encourage them to assem- 
ble in arms, as well as to keep those already in 
arms from disbanding ; and concluded by mani- 
festing a wish that Colonel Forman, whom he 
desired to see for this purpose, might be employ- 
ed on the service. 

The enemy had vainly, as incautiously, ima- 
gined, that to overrun was to conquer. They 
had even carried their presumption on our 
extreme weakness, and expected submission, so 
far, as to attempt covering the country through 
which they had marched, with an extensive 
chain of cantonments. TJiat link, which the 
post at Trenton supplied, consisted of a Hessian 
brigade of infantry, a company of chasseurs, a 
squadron of light dragoons, and six held pieces. 
At eight o'clock in the morning of the twenty- 
sixth of December, General Washington, with 
twenty-four hundred men, came upon them, 
after they had paraded, took one thousand 
prisoners, and re-passed the same day, without 
loss, to his encampment. As soon as the troops 
were recovered from their excessive fatigue, 



136 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND itEROlC EXPLOITS 

General Washington re-crossed a second time 
to Trenton. On the second of January, Lord 
CornwaUis, with the bulk of the British army, 
advanced upon him, cannonaded his post, and 
offered him battle : but the two armies jjein^ 
separated by the interposition of Trenton 
Creek, General Washington had it in his option 
to decline an engagement, which he did for the 
sake of striking the masterly stroke that he 
then meditated. Having kindled frequent fires 
around his camp, posted faithful men to keep 
them burning, and advanced sentinels, whose 
fidelity might be relied upon, he decamped si- 
lently after dark, and, by a circuitous route, 
reached Princeton at nine o'clock the next 
morning. The noise of the firing, by which 
he killed and captured between five and six 
hundred of the British brigade in that town, 
was the first notice Lord CornwaUis had of 
this stolen march. General Washington, the 
project successfully accomplished, instantly 
filed off for the mountainous grounds of Mor- 
ristown. Meanwhile, his Lordship, who arrived, 
by a forced march, at Princeton, just as he had 
left it, findinof the Americans could not be over- 
taken, proceeded, without halting, to Brunswick. 
On the fifth of January, 1777, from Plucke- 
min, General Washington elespatched an ac- 
count of this second success to General Put- 
nam, and ordered him to move immediately, 
with all his troops, to Croswick's, for the pur- 
pose of co-operating in recovering the Jerseys ; 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 137 

an event which the present fortunate juncture, 
while the enemy were yet panic-struck, appear- 
ed to promise. The General cautionecl him, 
however, if the enemy should still continue at 
Brvuiswick, to guard with great circumspection 
against a surprise ; especially as they, having 
recently suffered by two attacks, could scarcely 
avoid being edged with resentment to attempt 
retaliation. His Excellency farther advised 
him to give out his strength to be twice as 
great as it was ; to forward on all the baggage 
and scattering men belonging to the division 
destined for Morristown ; to employ as many 
spies as he should think proper ; to keep a 
number of horsemen, in the dress of the coun- 
try, going constantly backwards and forwards 
on the same secret service ; and lastlv, if he 
should discover any intention or motion of the 
enemy that coufdbe depended upon, and might 
be of consequence, not to fail in conveying the 
intelligence, as rapidly as possible by express, 
to head quarters. Major-General Putnam was 
directed, soon after, to take post at Princeton, 
where he continued until the spring. He had 
never with him more than a few hundred 
troops, though he was only at fifteen miles dis- 
tance from the enemy's strong garrison of Bruns- 
wick. At one period, from a sudden diminu- 
tion, occasioned by the tardiness of the militia 
turning out to replace those whose time of ser- 
vice was expired, he had fewer men for duty 
than he had miles of frontier to guard. Nor 



13^ LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS^ 

was the Commander-in-chief in a more ehgible 
situation. It is true, that while he had scarcely 
the semblance of an army, under the specious 
parade of a park of artillery, and the imposing 
appearance of his head quarters, estabhshed at 
Morristown, he kept up, in the eyes of his 
countrymen, as well as in the opinion of his 
enemy, the appearance of no contemptible 
force. Future generations will find difficulty 
in conceiving, how a handful of new levied 
men and militia, who were necessitated to be 
inoculated for the small pox in the course of the 
winter, could be subdivided and posted so 
advantageously, as efFectnally to protect the 
inhabitants, confine the enemy, curtail their 
forage, and beat up their quarters, without 
sustaining a single disaster. 

In the battle of Princeton, f'aptain M'Pher- 
son, of the ] 7th British regiment, a very worthy 
Scotchman, was desperately wounded in the 
lungs, and left with the dead. Upon General 
Putnam's arrival there, he found him languish- 
ing in extreme distress, without a surgeon, with- 
out a single accommodation , and without a friend 
to solace the sinking spirit in the gloomy hour 
of death. He visited, and immediately caused 
every possible comfort to be administered to him. 
Captain M'Pherson, who, contrary to all appear- 
ances, recovered, after having demonstrated to 
General Putnam the dignified sense of obliga- 
tions, which a generous mind wishes not to 
conceal, one day, in familiar conversation, 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 139 

demanded, " Pray, Sir, what countryman are 
you." "An American," answered the latter. — 
"Not a Yankee?" said the other.— "A full 
blooded one," replied the General. " By G — d, 
I am sorry for that," rejoined M'Pherson, "I 
did not think there could be so much goodness 
and generosity in an American, or, indeed, in 
any body but a Scotchman." 

While the recovery of Captain M'Pherson 
was doubtful, he desired that General Putnam 
Avould permit a friend in the British army at 
Brunswick, to come and assist him in making 
HIS WILL. General Putnam, who had then 
only fifty men in his whole command, was sadly 
embarrassed by the proposition. On the one 
hand, he was not content that a British officer 
should have an opportunity to spy out the 
weakness of his post ; on the other, it was 
scarcely in his nature to refuse complying with 
a dictate of humanity. He luckily bethought 
himself of an expedient, which he hastened to 
put in practice. A flag of truce was despatched 
with Captain M'Pherson's request, but under 
an injunction not to return with his friend until 
after dark. In the evening, lights were placed 
in all the rooms of the College, and in every 
apartment of the vacant houses throughout 
the town. During the whole night, the fifty 
men, sometimes altogether, and sometimes in 
small detachments, were marched from different 
quarters, by the house in which M'Pherson lay. 
Afterwards it was known, that the officer who 



140 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

came on the visit, at his return, reported that 
General Putnam's army, upon the most mo- 
derate calculation, could not consist of less than 
four or five thousand men. 

This winter's campaign, for our troops con- 
stantly kept the field after regaining a footing 
in the Jerseys, has never yet been faithfully 
and feelingly described. The sudden restora- 
tion of our cause from the very verge of ruin, 
was interwoven with such a tissue of inscruta- 
ble causes and extraordinary events, that, fear- 
ful of doing the subject greater injustice, by a 
passing disquisition, than a purposed silence, I 
leave it to the leisure of abler pens. The ill 
policy of the British doubtless contributed to 
accelerate this event. For the manner, impoli- 
tic as inhuman, in which they managed their 
temporary conquests, tended evidently to alien- 
ate the afifections of tlieir adherents, to con- 
firm the wavering in an opposite interest, to 
rouse the supine into activity, to assemble the 
dispersed to the standard of America, and to 
infuse a spirit of revolt into the minds of those 
men who had, from necessity, submitted to 
their power. Their conduct, in warring with 
fire and sword against the imbecility of youth, 
and the decrepitude of age ; against the arts, 
the sciences, the curious inventions, and the 
elegant improvements in civilized life ; against 
the melancholy widow, the miserable orphan, 
the peaceable professor of humane literature, 
and the sacred minister of the gospel, seemed 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 141 

to operate as powerfully, as if purposely iatend- 
ed to kindle the dormant spark of resistance 
into an inextinguishable flame. If we add to the 
black catalogue of provocations already enu- 
merated, their insatiable rapacity in plundering 
friends and foes indiscriminately; their libidi- 
nous brutality in violating the chastity of the 
female sex; their more than Gothic rage in 
defacing private writings, pubhc records, libra- 
ries of learning, dwellings of individuals, 
edifices for education, and temples of the Deity ; 
together witli their insufterable ferocity, unpre- 
cedented indeed among- civilized nations, in 
murdering on the field of battle the wounded, 
while begging for mercy, in causing their pri- 
soners to famish with hunger and cold in 
prisons and prison ships, and in carrying their 
malice beyond death itself, by denying the 
decent rites of sepulture to the dead ; we shall 
not be astonished that the yeomanry in the two 
Jerseys, when the first glimmering of hope 
began to break in upon them, rose as one man, 
with the unalterable resolution to perish in the 
generous cause, or expel their merciless inva- 
ders. 

The principal officers, stationed at a variety 
of well chosen, and at some almost inaccessi- 
ble positions, seemed all to be actuated by the 
same soul, and only to vie with each other in 
giving proofs of vigilance, enterprise, and va- 
lour. " From what has been said respecting the 
scantiness of our aggregate force, it wfll be 



142 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

concluded, that the number of men, under the 
orders of each, was indeed very small. But 
the uncommon alertness of the troops, who 
were incessantly hovering round the enemy in 
scouts, and the constant communication they 
kept between the several stations most conti- 
gfuous to each other, agreeably to the instruc- 
tions* of the general-in-chief, together with 
their readiness in giving, and confidence of re- 
ceiving such reciprocal aid as the exigencies 
might require, served to supply the defect of 
force. 

This manner of doing duty not only put our 
own posts beyond the reach of sudden insult 
and surprise, but so exceedingly harassed and- 

* The annexed private orders to Lord Stirling will show, in 
a laconic and military manner, the system of service then 
pursued : 

" To Brigadier-General Lord Stirling. 
" My Lokd, 

"You are to repair to Baskenridge, and take upon you the 
command of the troops now there, and such as may be sent to 
your care. 

"You are to endeavour, as much as possible, to harass and 
annoy the enemy, by keeping scouting parties constantly, or 
as frequently as possible, around their quarters. 

"As you will be in the neighbourhood of Generals Dicken- 
son and Warner, I recommend it to you to keep up a corres- 
pondence with them, and endeavour To regulate your parties 
by theirs, so as to have some constantly out. 
^ "Loc everv means in your power to obtain intelligence from 
ilie minwy ; which may possibly be better effected by engaging 
Btime of those people who have obtained protections, to go in, 
under pretence of asking advice, than by any other means. 

" You will also use every means in your power to obtain and 
•ommunicate the earliest accpunts of the enemy's movements; 
and to assemble, in the speediest manner possible, your troops, 
eilh«r for offence or defence. 

" Givsm at head-quarters, the fourth day of Feb.. nil. 
"GEORGE wiSHINdTON." 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 143 

intimidated the enemy, that foragers were sel- 
dom sent out by them, and never except in 
very large parties. General Dickenson, who 
commanded on General Putnam's left, disco- 
vered, about the 20th of January, a foraging 
party, consisting of about four hundred men, 
on the opposite side of the Mill-stone^ two 
miles from Somerset court-house. As the 
bridge was possessed and defended by three 
field-pieces, so that it could not be passed. Ge- 
neral Dickenson, at the head of four hundred 
militia, broke the ice, crossed the river where 
the water was about three feet deep, resolutely 
attacked, and totally defeated the foragers. 
Upon their abandoning the convoy, a few pri- 
soners, forty wagons, and more than a hundred 
draft horses, with a considerable booty of cattle 
and sheep, fell into his hands. 

Nor were our operations on General Put- 
nam's right flank less fortunate. To give coun- 
tenance to the numerous friends of the British 
government in the county of Monmouth ap- 
pears to have been a principal motive with 
Sir William Howe for stretching the chain of 
his cantonments, by his own confession,* pre- 

* Extract of a Letter from General Sir William Howe to 

Lord George Germaine, dated New York, Decepiber 20, 

1776. 

Having mentioned the fruitless attempt of Lord Cornwallis 
to find boats at Corryel's ferry to pass the Delaware— he pro- 
ceeds thus : , , . 

" The passages of the Delaware being thus rendered imprac- 
ticable, his loraship took post at Pennington, in which plac© 
and Trenton the two divisions remained until the fcrurteenth^ 
when the weather ha-ving become too Bevere to keqp the field, 



144 LIFE, ANECDOTESj AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

viously to his disaster, rather too far. After 
that chain became broken, as I have already 
related, by the blows at Trenton and Prince- 
ton, he was obliged to collect, during the rest 
of the winter, the useless remains in his bar- 
racks at Brunswick. In the meantime. Gene- 
ral Putnam was much more successful in his 
attempts to protect our dispersed and dispirited 
friends in the same district ; who, environed 
on every side by envenomed adversaries, re- 
mained inseparably riveted in affection to 
American independence. He first detached 
Colonel Gurney, and afterwards Major Davis,* 
with such parties of militia as could be spared, 
for their support. Several skirmishes ensued, 
in which our people had always the advantage. 



and the winter cantonments being arranged, the troops march- 
ed from both places to their respective stations. The chain, I 
own, is rather too extensive, but I was induced to occupy Bur- 
lington to cover the county of Monmouth, in which there are 
many loyal inhabitants; and trusting to the alrnost general 
submission of the country to the southward of this chain, and 
to the strength of the corps placed in the advanced posts, I 
conclude the troops will be in perfect security." 

* As there happened to be in my possession a copy of one 
of his letters to those officers, it was thought worthy of inser- 
tion here, in order to demonstrate his satisfaction with their 
conduct. 

"To Major John Davis, of the third battalion of Cumberland 
County Militia. 
" Sir, 

"I am much obliged to you for your activity, vigour, and 
diligence, since vou have been under my command ; you will, 
therefore, march your men to Philadelphia, and there dis- 
charge them ; returning into the store all the ammunition, 
arms, and accoutrements, you received at that place. 

"I am, sir, your humble servant, 
^'ISRAEL PUTNAM. 

*' Princeton, February 5, 1777." 



'^.^JkJ^^fie^ 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 145 

They took, at different times, many prisoners, 
horses, and wagons, from foraging parties. In 
effect, so well did they cover the country, as to 
induce some of the most respectable inhabi- 
tants to declare, that the security of the per- 
sons, as well as the salvation of the property 
of many friends to freedom, was owing to the 
spirited exertions of these two detachments ; 
who, at the same time that they rescued the 
country from the tyranny of tories, afforded an 
opportunity for the militia to recover from their 
consternation, to embody themselves in warhke 
array, and to stand on their defence. 

During this period. General Putnam having 
received unquestionable intelligence that a party 
of refugees, in British pay, had taken post, and 
were erecting a kind of redoubt at Lawrence's 
Neck, sent Colonel Nelson, with one hundred 
and fifty militia, to surprise them. That officer 
conducted with so much secrecy and decision, 
as to take the whole prisoners. These refu- 
gees* were commanded by Major Stockton, be- 
longing to Skinner's brigade, and amounted to 
sixty in number. 



* Extract of a Letter from General Putnam to the Council of 
Safety of Pennsylvania^ dated at Princeton, February 18, 
1777. 

"Yesterday evening Colonel Nelson, with a hundred and 
fifty men, at Lawrence's Neck, attacked sixty men of Cort- 
landt Skinner's brigade, commanded by the enemy's be- 
NOWUED LAND PILOT Major Richard Stockton^ routed them, 
and took the whole prisoners— among them the major, a cap- 
tain, and three subalterns, with seventy stand of arms. Fifiv 
of the Btjdford Pennsylvania rijlemen behaved like veteroM." 



146 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

A short time after this event, Lord Cornwal- 
hs sent out another forasfing party towards 
Bound Brook. General Putnam, having re- 
ceived notice from his emissaries, detached Ma- 
jor Smith, with a few riflemen, to annoy the 
party, and followed himself with the rest of his 
force. Before he could come up, Major Smith, 
who had formed an ambush, attacked the 
enemy, killed several horses, took a few priso- 
ners and sixteen baggage-wagons, without sus- 
taining any injury. By such operations, our 
hero, in the course of the winter, captured 
nearly a thousand prisoners. 

In the latter part of February, General 
Washington advised General Putnam, that, in 
consequence of a large accession of strength 
from New- York to the British army at Bruns- 
wick, it was to be apprehended they would 
soon make a forward movement towards the 
Delaware : in which case, the latter was direct- 
ed to cross the river with his actual force, to 
assume the command of the militia who might 
assemble, to secure the boats on the west side 
of the Delaware, and to facilitate the passage 
of the rest of the army. But the enemy did 
not remove from their winter-quarters until the 
season arrived when green forage could be 
supplied. In the intermediate period, the cor- 
respondence on the part of General Putnam 
with the Commiander-in-chief consisted princi- 
pally of reports and inquiries concerning the 
treatment of some, of the following descriptions 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 147 

of persons : either of those who came within 
our Unes with flags and pretended flags, or who 
had taken protection from the enemy, or who 
had been reputed disaffected to our cause, or 
who were designed to be comprehended in the 
American proclamation, which required that 
those who had taken protections should give 
them to the nearest American officer, or go 
within the British lines. The letters of his Ex- 
cellency in return, generally advisory, were 
indicative of confidence and approbation. 

When the spring had now so far advanced 
that it was obvious the enemy would soon take 
the field, the Commander-in-chief, after desiring 
General Putnam to give the officer who was 
to relieve him at Princeton, all the information 
necessary for the conduct of that post, appoint- 
ed that general to the command of a separate 
army in the Highlands of New- York. 

It is scarcely decided, from any documents 
yet published, whether the preposterous plans 
prosecuted by the British generals in the cam- 
paign of 1777, were altogether the result of 
their orders from home, or whether they partly 
originated from the contingencies of the mo- 
ment. The system which, at the time, tended 
to puzzle all human conjecture, when develop- 
ed, served also to contradict all reasonable cal- 
culation. Certain it is, the American com- 
mander-in-chief was, for a considerable time^ 
so perplexed with contradictory appearances, 
that he knew not how to distribute his troops. 



14:8 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

with his usual discernment, so as to oppose the 
enemy with equal prospect of success in differ- 
ent parts. The gathering tempests menaced 
the northern frontiers, the posts in the High- 
lands, and the city of Philadelphia «; but it was 
still doubtful where the fury of the storm would 
fall. At one time Sir William Howe was 
forcing his way by land to Philadelphia; at 
another, relinquishing the Jerseys ; at a third, 
facing round to make a sudden inroad ; then 
embarking with all the forces that could be 
spared from New- York ; and then putting out 
to sea, at the very moment when General Bur- 
goyne had reduced Ticonderoga, and seemed 
to require a co-operation in another quarter. 

On our side, we have seen that the old con- 
tinental army expired with the year 1776 ; 
since which, invention had been tortured with 
expedients, and zeal with efforts, to levy ano- 
ther : for on the success of the recruiting ser- 
vice depended the salvation of the country. 
The success was such as not to puff us up to 
presumption, or depress us to despair. The 
army in the Jerseys, under the orders of the 
general-in-chief, consisted of all the troops 
raised south of the Hudson ; that in the north- 
ern department, of the New -Hampshire bri- 
gade, two brigades of Massachusetts, and the 
brigade of New- York, together with some irre- 
gular corps ; and that in the Highlands, of the 
remaining two brigades of Massachusetts, the 
Connecticut line, consisting of two brigades, 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 149 

the brigade of Rhode Island, and one regiment 
of New- York. Upon liearing of the loss of 
Ticonderoga, and the progress of the British 
towards Albany, General Washington ordered 
the northern army to be re-enforced with the 
two brigades of Massachusetts, then in the 
Highlands ; and, upon finding the army under 
his immediate command out-numbered by that 
of Sir William Howe, which had, by the cir- 
cuitous route of the Chesapeake, invaded Penn- 
sylvania, he also called from the Highlands one 
of the Connecticut brigades, and that of Rhode 
Island, to his own assistance. 

In the neighbourhood of General Putnam 
there was no enemy capable of exciting alarms. 
The army left at New- York seemed only de- 
signed for its defence. In it were several en- 
tire corps, composed of tories, who had flocked 
to the British standard. There was, besides, 
a band of lurking miscreants, not properly en- 
rolled, who staid chiefly at West Chester ; 
from whence they infested the country between 
the two armies, pillaged the cattle, and carried 
off the peaceal3le inhabitants. It was an un- 
worthy policy in British generals to patronize 
banditti. The whig inhabitants on the edge 
of our lines, and still lower down, who had 
been plundered in a merciless manner, delayed 
not to strip the tories in return. People most 
nearly connected and allied frequently became 
most exasperated and inveterate in malice. 
Then the ties of fellowship were broken— -then 



150 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

friendship itself being soured to enmity, the 
mind readily gave way to private revenge, un- 
controlled retaliation, and all the deforming 
passions that disgrace humanity. Enormities, 
almost without a name, were perpetrated, at 
the description of which, the bosom, not frozen 
to apathy, must glow with a mixture of pity 
and indignation. To prevent the predatory 
incursions from below, and to cover the county 
of West Chester, General Putnam detached 
from his head-quarters, at Peek's-Kill, Meigs's 
regiment, which, in the course of the campaign, 
struck several partizan strokes, and achieved 
the objects for which it was sent. He likewise 
took measures, without noise or ostentation, to 
secure himself from being surprised and carried 
within the British lines by the torieSj who had 
formed a plan for the purpose. The informa- 
tion of this intended enterprise, conveyed to him 
through several channels, was corroborated by 
that obtained and transmitted by the Command- 
er-in-chief. 

It was not wonderful that many of these to- 
nes were able, undiscovered, to penetrate far 
into the country, and even to go with letters 
or messages from one British army to another. 
The inhabitants who were well affected to the 
royal cause, afforded them every possible sup- 
port, and their own knowledge of the different 
routes gave them a farther facility in perform- 
ing their peregrinations. Sometimes the most 
active loyalists, as the tories wished to denomi- 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 151 

nate themselves, who had gone into the Britisli 
posts, and received promises of commissions 
upon enhstma a certain number of soldiers, 
came back a^ain secretly with recruitmg in- 
structions. Sometimes these, and others who 
came from tiie enemy wiliiin the verge ot our 
camps, were detected and condemned to deatli, 
in conformitv to the usac^^es of war. But the 
Brinsh generals, who had an unlimited supply 
of money at their command, were able to pay 
with so much liberality, that emissaries could 
always be found. Still, it is tliought^ that the 
intelli'-reiice of the American commanders was, 
at W, equally accurate, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^f .|^ 
poverty of their military chest, and the inability 
of rewarding mercenary agents, for secret ser- 
vices, in proportion to their risk and merit. 

A person, by the name of Palmer, who was 
a lieutenant i^n the tory new levies was de- 
tected in the camp at Peek's KiU. Governor 
Tryon, who commanded the new levies re- 
claimed him as a British officer, represented the 
heinons crime of condemning a man commis- 
sioned by his majesty, and threatened venge^ce 
in case he should be executed. General Put- 
nam wrote the following pithy reply. 

« Nathan Palmer, a lieutenant in your king's 
service, was taken in my camp as a spy—\iQ 
was tried as a spy-\i^ was condemned as a 



152 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

spy — and you may rest assured, sir, he shall be 
hanged as a spy. 

" 1 have the honour to be, &c. 

" Israel Putnam. 
" His Excellency Governor Tryon. 
" P, S. Afternoon. He is hanged." 

Important transactions soon occurred. Not 
long after the two brigades had marched from 
Peek's Kill, to Pennsylvania, a re-enforcement 
arrived at New- York from Europe. Appear- 
ances indicated that offensive operations would 
follow. General Putnam having been reduced 
in force to a single brigade in the field, and a 
single regiment in garrison at Fort Montgo- 
mery, repeatedly informed the Commander-in- 
chief, that the posts committed to his charge 
must, in all probability, be lost, in case an at- 
tempt should be made upon them ; and that, 
circumstanced as he was, he could not be re- 
sponsible for the consequences. His situation 
was certainly to be lamented ; but it was not 
in the power of the Commander-in-chief to al- 
ter it, except by authorizing him to call upon 
the mihtia for aid — an aid always precarious, 
and often so tardy, as, when obtained, to be of 
no utility. 

On the fifth of October, Sir Henry Clinton 

came up the North River with three thousand 

men. After making many feints to mislead 

,the attention, he landed, the next morning, at 

,Stony Point, and commenced his march over 



OF MAJOPc-GENERAL PUTNAM. 153 

the mountains to Fort Montgomery. Gover- 
nor Clinton, an active, resolute, and intelligent 
oflicer, who commanded the garrison, upon 
being apprised of the movement^ despatched a 
letter, by express, to General Putnam for suc- 
cour. By the treachery of the messenger, the 
letter miscarried. General Putnam, astonish- 
ed at hearing nothing respecting the enemy, 
rode, with General Parsons, and Colonel Root, 
his adjutant-general, to reconnoitre them at 
King's Ferry. In the mean-time, at five 
o'clock in the afternoon. Sir Henry Clinton's 
columns, having surmounted the obstacles and 
barriers of nature, descended from the Thun- 
der-Hill, through thickets impassable but for 
light trooDs, and attacked"^ the different re- 

* The author of these memoirs, then major of brigade to the 
first Connecticut brigade, was alone at head-quarters when the 
firing began. He hastened to Colonel Wyllys, the senior of- 
ficer in camp, and advised him to despatch all the men not 
on duty to Fort Montgomery, without waiting for orders. 
About five hundred men marched instantly under Colonel 
Meigs; and the author, with Dr. Beardsley, a surgeon in the 
brigade, rode, at full speed, through a bye-path, to let the gar- 
rison know that a re-enforcement was on its march. Not- 
withstanding all tlie haste these officers made to and over the 
river, the fort was so completely invested on their arrival, that 
it was impossible to enter. They went on board the new fri- 
gate which lay near the fortress, and had the misfortune to be 
idle, though not unconcerned, spectators of the siurm. They 
saw the minutest actions distinctly when the works were 
carried. The frigate, after receiving several platoons, slipped 
her cable, and proceeded a little way up the river; but the 
wind and tide becoming adverse, the crew set her on fire, to 
prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy, whose ships 
were approaching. The lowering darkness of the night, the 
profound stillness that reigned, the interrupted flashes of the 
flames that illuminated the waters, the long shadows of the 
cliffs that now and then were seen, the explosion of the can- 



154 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

doubts. The garrison, inspired by the conduct 
of their leaders, defended the works with dis- 
tinguished valour. But, as the post had been 
designed principally to prevent tlie passing of 
ships, and as an assault in rear had not been 
expected, the works on the land side were in- 
complete and untenable. In the dusk of twi- 
light, the British entered with their bayonets 
fixed. Their loss was inconsiderable. Nor 
was that of the garrison great. Governor 
Clinton, his brother. General James Clinton, 
Colonel Dubois, and most of the officers and 
men, eifected their esca,pe under cover of the 
thick sm.oke and darkness that suddenly pre- 
vailed. The capture of this fort by Sir Henry 
Clinton, together with the consequent removal 
of the chains and booms that obstructed the 
navigation, opened a passage to Albany, and 
seemed to favour a junction of his force with 
that of General Burgoyne. But the latter 
having been compelled to capitulate a few days 
after this event, and great numbers of militia 
having arrived from New-England, the suc- 
cessful army returned to New- York ; yet not 
before a detachment from it, under the orders 
of Geiieral Vaughan, had burnt the defenceless 
town of Esopus, and several scattering build- 
ings on the banks of the river. 

non which were left loaded in the ship, and the reverberating 
echo which resounded, at intervals, between the stupendous 
mountains on both sides of the river, composed an awful night- 
piece for persons prepared by the preceding scene, to contem- 
phte subjects of horrid subhmity. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 155 

Notwithstanding the army in the Highlands 
had been so much* weakened, for the sake of 
strengthening the armies in other quarters, as 
to have occasioned the loss of Fort Montgo- 
mery, yet that loss was productive of no conse- 
quences. Our main army in Pennsylvania, 
after having contended with superior force in 
• two indecisive battles, still held the enemy in 
check ; while the splendid success which at- 
tended our arms at the northward, gave a more 
favourable aspect to the American affairs, at 
the close of this campaign, than they had ever 
before assumed. 

When the enemy fell back to New- York by 
water, we followed them a part of the way by 
land. Colonel Meigs, with a detachment from 
the several regiments in General Parsons' 
brigade, having made a forced march from 
Crompond to West Chester, surprised and 
broke up for a time the band of freebooters, of 
whom he brought off My, together with many 
cattle and horses which they had recently 
stolen. 

Soon after this enterprise, General Putnam 
advanced towards the British lines. As he 
had received intelligence that small bodies of 
the enemy were out, with orders from Gover- 
nor Tryon to burn Wright's mills, he prevented 
it by detaching three parties, of one hundred 
men in each. One of these parties fell in with 
and captured thirty-five, and another forty, of 
the new levies. But as he could not prevent a 



156 LIFEj ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

third hostile party from burning the house of 
Mr. Van Tassel, a noted whig, and a commit- 
tee-man, who was forced to go along with 
them, naked and barefoot, on the icy ground, 
in a freezing night, he, for the professed pur- 
pose of retaliation, sent Captain Buchanan, in 
a whale-boat, to burn the house of General Oli- 
ver Delancy on York Island. Buchanan ef 
fected his object, and by this expedition put a 
period, for the present, to that unmeaning and 
wanton species of destruction. 

While General Putnam quartered at New- 
Rochelle, a scouting party, wliich had been sent 
to West-Farms, below West-Chester, surround- 
ed the house in which Colonel James Delancy 
lodged, and, notwithstanding he crept under 
the bed the ]3etter to be concealed, brought him 
to Head-duarters before morning. This offi- 
cer was exchanged by the British general with- 
out delay, and placed at the head of the cow- 
boys, a licentious corps of irregulars, who, in 
the sequel, committed unheard of depredations 
and excesses. 

It was distressing to see so beautiful a part 
of the country so barbarously wasted, and of- 
ten to witness some peculiar scene of female 
misery : for most of the female inhabitants had 
been obliged to fly within the lines possessed 
by one army or the other. Near our quarters 
was an affecting instance of human vicissitude. 
Mr. William Sutton, of Mamaroneck, an inoffen- 
sive man, a merchant by profession, who lived 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 157 

in a decent fashion, and whose family had as 
happy prospects as ahnost any m the country, 
upon some imputation of toryism, went to the 
enemy. His wife, oppressed with grief in the 
disagreeable state of dereliction, did not long 
survive. Betsey Sutton, their eldest daughter, 
was a modest and lovely young woman, of 
about fifteen years old, when, at the death of 
her mother, the care of five or six younger 
children devolved upon her. She was discreet 
and provident beyond her years ; but when we 
saw her, she looked to be feeble in health — 
broken in spirit — wan, melancholy, and deject- 
ed. She said " that their last cow, which fur- 
nished milk for the children, had lately been 
taken away — that they had frequently been 
plundered of their wearing apparel and furni- 
ture, she believed by both parties — that they 
had little more to lose — and that she knew not 
where to procure bread for the dear little ones, 
who had no father to provide for them" — 7io 
mother — she was going to have said — but a 
torrent of tears choked articulation. In com- 
ing to that part of the country again, after some 
campaigns had elapsed, I found the habitation 
desolate, and the garden overgrown with weeds. 
Upon inquiry, I learnt, that as soon as we left 
the place, some ruffians broke into the house 
while she lay in bed, in the latter part of the 
night ; and that, having been terrified by their 
rudeness, she ran, half-naked, into a neigh- 
bouring swamp, where she continued until the 



158 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

morning — there the poor girl caught a violent 
cold, which ended in a consumption. It finish- 
ed a life without a spot — and a career of suf- 
ferings commenced and continued without a 
fault. 

SigVits of wretchedness always touched with 
commiseration the feelings of General Putnam, 
and prompted his generous soul to succour the 
afflicted. But the indulgence which he show- 
ed, whenever it did not militate against his du- 
ty, towards the deserted and suffering families 
of the tories in the State of New York, was 
the cause of his becoming unpopular with no 
inconsiderable class of people in that State. 
On the other side, he had conceived an uncon- 
querable aversion to many of the persons v/ho 
were intrusted with the disposal of tory pro- 
perty, because he believed them to have been 
guilty of peculations and other infamous prac- 
tices. But although the enmity between him 
and the sequestrators v^as acrimonious as mu- 
tual, yet he lived in habits of amity with the 
most respectable characters in public depart- 
ments, as well as in private life. 

His character was also respected by the ene- 
my. He had been acquainted with many of 
the principal officers in a former war. As 
flags frequently passed between the out-posts, 
during his continuance on the lines, it was a 
common practice to forward newspapers by 
them ; and as those printed by Rivington, the 
royal printer in New York, were infamous for 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 159 

the falsehoods with which they abounded, 
General Putnam once sent a packet to his old 
friend General Robertson, with this billet : 
" Major-General Putnam presents his compli- 
ments to Major-General Robertson, and sends 
him some American newspapers for his peru- 
sal ; — when General Robertson shall have done 
with them, it is requested they be given to 
Rivington, in order that he may print some 
truth." 

Late in the year we left the lines and re- 
paired t(j the Highlands ; for upon the loss of 
Fort Montgomery, the Commander-in-chief 
determined to build another fortification for 
the defence of the river. His Excellency, ac- 
cordingly, wrote to General Putnam to fix up- 
on the spot. After reconnoitring all the dif- 
fefent places proposed, and revolving in his 
own mind their relative advantages for oifence 
on the water and defence on the land, he fix- 
ed upon West-Point. It is no vulgar praise 
to say, that to him belongs the glory of having 
chosen this rock of our military salvation. The 
position for water-batteries, which inight sweep 
the channel where the river formed a right 
angle, made it the most proper of any for 
commanding the navigation ; while the rocky 
ridges that rose in awful sublimity behind 
each other, rendered it impregnable, and even 
incapable of being invested by less than twen- 
ty thousand men. The British, who consider- 
ed this post as a sort of American Gibraltar, 



160 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

never attempted it but by the treachery of an 
American officer. All the world knows that 
this project failed, and that West Point con- 
tinues to be the receptacle of every thing valua- 
ble in military preparations to the present day. 
In the month of January, 1778, when a 
snoAv, two feet deep, lay on the earth, General 
Parsons' brigade went to West-Point and 
broke ground. Want of covering for the 
troops, together with want of tools and mate- 
rials for the works, made the prospect truly 
gloomy and discouraging. It was necessary 
that means should be found, though our cur- 
rency was depreciated, and our treasury ex- 
hausted. Tlie estimates and requisitions of 
Colonel la Radiere, the engineer who laid out 
the works, altogether disproportioned to our 
circumstances, served only to put us in mind 
of our poverty, and, as it were, to satirize our 
resources. His petulant behaviour, and unac- 
commodating disposition, added farther em- 
barrassments. It was then that the patriotism 
of Governor Clinton shone in full lustre. His 
exertions to furnish supplies can never be too 
much commended. His influence, arising from 
his popularity, was unlimited : yet he hesitated 
not to put all his popularity at risk, whenever 
the federal interests demanded. Notwith- 
standing the impediments that opposed our 
progress, with his aid, before the opening of 
the campaign, the works were in great for- 
wardness. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 161 

According to a resolution of Congress, an in- 
quiry was to be made into the causes of milita- 
ry disasters. Major-General M'Dougall, Briga- 
dier-General Huntington, and Colonel Wig- 
glesworth composed the Court of Inquiry on 
the loss of Fort Montgomery. Upon full 
knowledge and mature deliberation of facts on 
the spot, they reported the loss to have been 
occasioned by want of men, and not by any 
fault in the commanders. 

General Putnam, who during the investiga- 
tion was relieved from duty, as soon as Con- 
gress had approved the report, took command 
of the right wing of the grand army, under the 
orders of the General-in-chief This was just 
after the battle of Monmouth, when the three 
armies, which had last year acted separately, 
joined at the White-plains. Our effective force, 
in one camp, was at no other time so respectable 
as at this juncture. The army consisted of 
sixty regular regiments of foot, formed into 
fifteen brigades, four battalions of artillery, four 
regiments of horse, and several corps of State 
troops. But as the enemy kept close within 
their lines on York Island, nothing could be 
attempted. Towards the end of autumn we 
broke up the camp, and went first to Frede- 
ricksburgh, and thence to winter-quarters. 

In order to cover the country adjoining to the 
Sound, and to support the garrison of West 
Point, in case of an attack, Major-General Put- 
nam was stationed, for the winter, at Reading, 



162 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

in Connecticut. He had under his orders, 
the brigade of New Hampshire, the two bri- 
gades of Connecticut, the corps of infantry 
commanded by Hazen, and that of cavahy by 
Sheldon. 

The troops, who had been badly fed, badly 
clothed, and worse paid, by brooding over their 
grievances in the leisure and inactivity of win- 
ter quarters, began to tliink them intolerable. 
The Connecticut brigades formed the design of 
marching to Hartford, where the general as- 
sembly was then in session, and of demanding 
redress at the point of tiie bayonet. Word 
having been brought to General Putnam, that 
the second brigade was under arms for this 
purpose, he mounted his horse, galloped to the 
cantonment, and thus addressed them : " My 
brave lads, whither are you going ? Do you 
intend to desert your officers, and to invite the 
enemy to follow you into the country ? Whose 
cause have you been fighting and suffering so 
long in — is it not your own ? Have you no 
property, no parents, wives or children 'I You 
have behaved like men so far — all the world is 
full of your praises — and posterity will stand 
astonished at your deeds : but not if you spoil 
all at last. Don't you consider how much the 
country is distressed by the war, and that your 
officers have not been any better paid than your- 
selves? But we all expect better times, and that 
the country will do us ample justice. Let us 
.all stand by one another, then, and fight it out 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 163 

like brave soldiers. Think what a shame it 
would be for Connecticut men to run away 
from their officers." After the several regi- 
ments had received the General, as he rode 
along the line, icith drums heatings and 'pre- 
sented arms, the sersfeants, who had then the 
command, brought the men to an order, in 
which position they continued while he was 
speaking. When he had done, he directed the 
acting major of brigade to give the word for 
them to shoulder, march to their regimental 
parades, and lodge arms ; all which they exe- 
cuted with promptitude and apparent good 
humour. One soldier, only, who had been the 
most active, was confined in the quarter-guard ; 
from whence, at night, he attempted to make 
his escape. But the sentinel, who had also 
been in the mutiny, shot him dead on the spot, 
and thus the affair subsided. 

About the middle of winter, while General 
Putnam was on a visit to his out-post at Horse- 
Neck, he found Governor Tryon advancing 
upon that town with a corps of fifteen hundred 
men. To oppose these General Putnam had 
only a picket of one hundred and fifty men, 
and two iron field-pieces, without horses or 
.drag-ropes. He, however, planted his cannon 
on the high ground, by the meeting-house, and 
retarded their approach by firing several times, 
until, perceiving the horse (supported by the 
infantry) about to charge, he ordered the picket 
to provide for their safety, by retiring to 9, 



164 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 



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Putnam's escape at horse-neck. — p. 164. 

swamp, inaccessible to horse, and secured his 
own, by plunging down the steep precipice at 
the church upon a full trot. This precipice is 
so steep, where he descended, as to have artifi- 
cial stairs, composed of nearly one hundred 
stone steps, for the accommodation of foot pas- 
sengers. There the dragoons, who were but a 
sword's length from him, stopped short ; for the 
declivity was so abrupt, that they ventured not 
to follow ; and, before they could gain the val- 
ley, by going round the brow of the hill in the 
ordinary road, he was far enough beyond their 
reach. He continued his route, unmolested, to 
Stamford ; whence, having strengthened his 
picket by the junction of some militia, he came 
back again, and in turn, pursued Governor 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 165 

Tryon in his retreat.* As he rode down the 
precipice, one ball, of the many fired at him, 
went through his beaver: but Governor Tryon, 
by way of compensation for spoiling his hat, 
sent him, soon afterwards, as a present, a com- 
plete suit of clothes. 

In the campaign of 1779, Avhich terminated 
the career of General Putnam's seiwices, he 
commanded the Maryland line, posted at But- 
termilk falls, about two miles belov/ West Point. 
He was happy in possessing the friendship of 
the officers of that line, and in living on terms 
of hospitality with them. Indeed there was no 
family in the army that lived better than his 
own. The General, his second son. Major 
Daniel Putnam, and the writer of these me- 
moirs, composed that family. This campaign, 
principally spent in strengthening the works of 
West Point, was only signalized for the storm 
of Stony Point, by the light infantry under the 
conduct of General Wayne, and the surprise of 
the post of Powles-Hook, by the corps under 
the command of Colonel Henry Lee. W^hen 
the army quitted the field, and marched to 
Morristown, into v/inter quarters. General 
Putnam's family went into Connecticut, for a 
few weeks. In Cecember, the General began 

* In this retreat, though with a very inferior force, General 
Putnam made about fifty prisoners, part of whom were wound- 
ed, and the whole were the next day sent, under the escort of 
an officer's gruard, to the British lines, for exchange. It was 
for the humanity and kindness of Putnam to the wounded 
prisoners, that Governor Tryon complimented him with the 

suit of clothes." 



166 LIFE. ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

his journey to Morristown. Upon the road be- 
tween Pomfret and Hartford, he felt an unusual 
torpor slowly pervading his right hand and 
foot. This heaviness crept gradually on, until 
it had deprived him of the use of his limbs on 
that side, in a considerable degree, before he 
reached the house of his friend. Colonel Wads- 
worth. Still he was unwilling to consider his 
disorder of the paralytic kind, and endeavoured 
to shake it off by exertion. Having found that 
impossible, a temporary dejection, disguised, 
however, under a veil of assumed cheerfulness, 
succeeded. But reason, philosophy, and re- 
ligion, soon reconciled him to his fate. In that 
situation he has constantly remained, favoured 
with such a portion of bodily activity as enables 
him to walk and to ride moderately ; and re- 
taining, unimpaired, his relish for enjoyment, 
his love of pleasantry, his strength of memory, 
and all the faculties of his mind. As a proof 
that the powers of memory are not weakened, 
it ought to be observed, that he has lately re- 
peated, from recollection, all the adventures of 
his life, which are here recorded, and which 
had formerly been communicated to the com- 
piler in detached conversations. 

In patient, yet fearless expectation of the ap- 
proach of THE King of Terrors, whom he 
hath full often faced in the field of blood, the 
Chi'istian hero now enjoys, in domestic retire- 
ment, the fruit of his early industry. Having 
in youth provider] a competent subsistence for 



OP MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 167 

old age, he was secured from the danger of pe- 
nury and distress, to which so many officers 
and soldiers, worn out in the public service, 
have been reduced. To illustrate his merits 
the more fully, this essay will be concluded 
with a copy of the last letter written to him, by 
General Washington, in his military character. 

" Head Quarters, 2d June, 1783. 
"Dear Sir, 

" Your favour of the 20th of May I received 
with much pleasure. For I can assure you, 
that amons: the many worthy and meritorious 
officers with whom I have had the happiness 
to be connected in service through the course of 
this war, and from whose cheerful assistance in 
the various and trying vicissitudes of a compli- 
cated contest, the name of a Putnam is not 
forgotten ; nor will be but with that stroke of 
time which shall obliterate from my mind the 
remembrance of all those toils and fatigues 
through which we have struggled for the pre- 
servation and establishment of the Rights, Li- 
berties, and Independence of our Country. 

" Your congratulations on the happy pros- 
pects of peace and independent security, with 
their attendant blessings to the United 
States, I receive with gri-eat satisfaction ; and 
beg that you will accept^^a return of my gratu- 
lations to you on this auspicious event — an 
event in which, great as it is in itself, and glo- 
rious as it will probably be in its consequences, 



168 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

you have a right to participate largely, from 
the distinguished part you have contributed to- 
wards its attainment. 

"But while I contemplate the greatness of 
the object for which we have contended, and 
felicitate you on the happy issue of our toils 
and labours, which have terminated with such 
general satisfaction, I lament that you should 
feel the ungrateful returns of a country, in 
whose service you have exhausted youi bodily 
strength, and expended the vigour of a youth- 
ful constitution. I wish, however, that your 
expectations of returning liberality may be 
verified. I have a hope they may — but should 
they not, your case will not be a singular one. 
Ingratitude has been experienced in all a'l^es, 
and REPUBLICS, in particular^ have ever been 
famed, for the exercise of that unnatural and 

SORDID VICE. 

"The SECRETARY AT WAR, who is HOW 

here, informs me that you have ever been con- 
sidered as entitled to full pay since your ab- 
sence from the field, and that you will still be 
considered in that light until the close of the 
war ; at which period you will be equally en- 
titled to the same emoluments of half-pay or 
commutation as other officers of your rank. 
The same opinion is also given by the pay- 
master-general, who is now with the army, 
empowered by Mr. Morris for the settlement of 
all their accounts, and who will attend to your's 
M^henever you shall tbink proper to send on 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 169 

for the purpose, which it will probably be best 
for you to do in a short time. 

" I anticipate, with pleasure, the day, and 
that, 1 trust, not far oil] when I shall quit the 
busy scenes of a military em.ployment, and re- 
tire to the more tranquil walks of domestic life. 
In that, or whatever other situation Providence 
may dispose of my future days, the remem- 
brance OF THE MANV FRIENDSHIPS AND 
CONNEXIONS I PIAVE HAD THE HAPPINESS 
TO CONTRACT WITH THE GENTLEMEN OF THE 
ARMY, WILL BE ONE OF MY MOST GRATEFUL 

REFLECT I ONs. Under th is con Icmjilation^ and 
impressed with the senti7nents of benevolence 
and regard. I coininend, you, my dear sir, m^y 
other friends, and. with tJtem, the interests and 
ha2)j)i7iess of our dear country, to the keeping 

AND PROTECTION OF AlMIGHTY GoD. 

" I have the honour to be, (fee. 

" George Washington. 
« To the Hon. Maj. Gen. Putnam." 

The remainder of the life of General Put- 
nam was passed in quiet retirement with his 
family. He experienced few interruptions in 
his bodily health, (except the paralytic debility 
with which he was afflicted,) retained full pos- 
session of his mental faculties, and enjoyed the 
society of his friends until the 17th of May, 
1790, when he was violently attacked with an 
inflammatory disease. Satisfied from the first 
that it would prove mortal, he was calm and ■ 
8 



170 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITS 

resigned, and welcomed the approach of death 
with joy, as a messenger sent to call him from 
a life of toil to everlasting rest. On the 19th 
of May, 1790, he ended a life which had been 
spent in cultivating and defending the soil of 
his birth. 

Much of his life had been spent in arms, 
and the military of the neighbourhood were 
desirous that the rites of sepulture should be 
accompanied with martial honours : they felt 
that this last tribute of respect was due to a 
soldier, who, from a patriotic love of country, 
had devoted the best part of his life to the de- 
fence of her rights, and the establishment of 
her independence — and who, through long and 
trying services, was never once reproached for 
misconduct as an officer ; but when disease 
compelled him to retire from service, left it, be- 
loved and respected by the army and his chief, 
and with high claims to the grateful remem- 
brance of his country. 

Under these impressions, the grenadiers of 
the 11th regiment; the independent corps of 
artillerists, and the militia companies in the 
neighbourhood, assembled each at their ap- 
pointed rendezvous, early on the morning of 
the 21st, and having repaired to the late dwell- 
ing house of the deceased, a suitable escort was 
formed, attended by a procession of the masonic 
brethren present, and a large concourse of re- 
spectable citizens, which moved to the congre- 
gational meeting house in Brooklyn; and, after 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 171 

divine service performed by the Rev. Dr. Whit- 
ney, all that was earthly of a patriot and hero 
was laid in the silent tomb, mider the discharge 
of voUies from the infantry, and minute ofuns 
from the artillery. 

The folloiDinL^ eidogiu?n iras pronounced at 
the g-rave of General Putnam by Dr. A. 
Waldo. 

'•Those venerable relics! once delighted in 
the endearing domestic virtues, which consti- 
tute the excellent neighbour — husband — parent 
— and worthy brother ! liberal and substantial 
in his friendship ; — unsuspicious — open — and 
generous ; — ^just and sincere in dealing ; a be- 
nevolent citizen of the world — he concentrated 
in his bosom, the noble qnalities of an honest 

MAN. 

"Born a hero — whom nature taught and 
cherished in the lap of innumerable toils and 
dangers, lie was terrible in battle ! But, from 
the amiableness of his heart— when carnage 
ceased, his humanity spread over the field, like 
the refreshing zephyrs of a summer's evening I 
— The prisoner — the wounded — the sick — the 
forlorn — experienced the delicate sympathy of 
this soldier's pillow — the poor, and the 
needy, of every description, received the chari- 
table bounties of this Christian soldier. 

" He pitied littleness — loved goodness — ad- 
mired greatness, and ever aspired to its glori- 
ous summit ! The friend, the servant, and 



172 LIFE, ANECDOTES, AND HEROIC EXPLOITi 

almost unparalleled lover of his country ; — 
worn with honourable age, and the former 
toils of z/7ar— Putnam ! ' Rests from his la- 
bours.' 

" Till mouldering worlds and tumbling systems burst! 
When the last trump shall renovate his dust — 
Still by the mandate of eternal truth, 
His soul will ' flourish in immortal youth !' 

" This all who knew him know ; — this all 
who loved him, tell." 

The late Rev. Dr. Duris^kf. President of Yale 
College^ who knew General Putnam ifiti- 
mat ell/, has portraf/ed his character faith- 
fully in the folloicinio- inscription^ which is 
engraven on his tomb. 



OF MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM. 173 

Sacred be this Monument 

to the memory 

of 

Israel Putnam, Esquire, 

senior Major- General in the armies 

of 

the United States of America; 

who 

was born at Salem, 

in the Province of Massachusetts, 

on the 7th day of January, 

A. D. 1718, 

and died 

on the 19th day of May, 

■ A. D. 1790. 

Passenger, 

if thou art a Soldier, 

drop a tear over the dust of a Hero 

who, 

ever attentive 

to the lives and happiness of his men, 

dared to lead 

where any dared to follow; 

if a Patriot, 

remember the distinguished and gallant services 

rendered thy country 

by the Patriot who sleeps beneath this marble; 

if thou art honest, generous, and worthy, 

tender a cheerful tribute of respect 

to a man, 

whose generosity was singular, 

whose honesty was proverbial ; 

who 

raised himself to universal esteem, 

and oflBces of eminent distinction, 

by personal worth 

and a 

useful life. 



TO THE READER. 

Through inadvertence, an error has escaped 
in the Title page, which is here coiTected. 
The main part is from the pen of Colonel Hum- 
phreys ; but so far as General Putnam was con- 
nected with the battle of Bunker Hill, the prin- 
cipal portion is extracted from an " Historical 
and Topographical Sketch of Bunker Hill Bat- 
tle, by Samuel Swett." The Anecdotes are by 
the same hand. 



APPENDIX. 



The important particulars in the life of Ge- 
neral Putnam having been already narrated, 
the remaining pages will be occupied by revo- 
lutionary anecdotes, which tend to show the 
body of the times, its form and pressure, " in 
those days which literally tried men's souls." 
The reader will require no unusual condiment 
to give these a keen relish. 



General Ward received from the general 
Congress the appointment of first major-gene- 
ral, and second in command of the American 
army. On the arrival of General Washington 
at Cambridge, he assumed the command of the 
right wing at Roxbury, and his general dispo- 
sition of the troops about Boston, was sanc- 
tioned by the approbation of the Commander-in- 
chief t'rom extreme ill health, he resigned 
his commission in April, 1776 ; but notwith- 
standing his resignation was accepted, at the 
earnest request of Congress and General Wash- 
ington, he continued in command, near Boston, 
until the 20th of March, 1777. He was after- 
wards a member of Congress under the old 



176 APPENDIX. 

confederation and present constitution, and 
died in 1800, aged seventy-three. 

The veteran General Pomeroy heard the 
peahng artillery, which seemed to invite him to 
battle ; he was a soldier too brave, and a patriot 
too ardent, to resist a summons so agreeable. 
He requested a horse of General Ward, to 
carry him to the field ; delighted at an aid so 
important, it was instantly supplied. With his 
musket and cartridges, he repaired to the Neck ; 
inquiring of a sentry posted there, and viewing 
the ground and the tremendous fire across, he 
was alarmed, not for himself, but for the horse 
he had borrowed ; he delivered him to the sen- 
try, and coolly marched across. He advanced 
to the rail fence at the left. His approach gave 
new confidence to the men ; they received him 
with the highest exultation, and the name of 
General Pomeroy rang through the line. In 
early life he had been an ingenious mechanic, 
and many a soldier was supplied with arms of 
his manufacture. Had Vulcan himself supplied 
the Grecians with his celestial armour, and ap- 
peared in their ranks, they would not have been 
more certain of victory. 

General Pomeroy expressed his strong sense 
of the blindness of fortune, that, of the two vo- 
lunteer generals in the battle, Warren, the 
young and chivalrous soldier, the eloquent and 
enlightened legislator, should fall, and he 
escape, old and useless, unhurt. From age he 
declined the honourable appointment of briga- 



APPENDIX. 177 

dier-general of the Unitedr States army, and re- 
tired from service. But, like the veteran war- 
horse, when the echoes of his majestic Connec- 
ticut rang with the clarion of battle, he spurned 
the peaceful retreat which his long life and 
long services demanded. He preferred even a 
regiment to inaction, and, as a colonel, marched 
to join the kindred spirits who composed our 
army in the Jerseys. His exposures produced 
a pleurisy, which proved fatal at Peekskill, in 
New-York, where his country owes him a 
monument, and bravery and patriotism peren- 
nial fame. 

General Thomas was appointed first briga- 
dier-general under the United States, in 1776 
was appointed major-general, and on the death 
of Montgomery, repaired to Canada, to com- 
mand the American forces before Quebec. 
Their situation was nearly desperate ; but he 
was too adventurous to relinquish the enter- 
prise without one attempt to secure the favours 
of fortune. He endeavoured to burn the ene- 
my's naval force before the city by a fire-ship, 
intending to attack the place during the con- 
flagration ; but the fire-ship miscarried, and 
the general was compelled to order a retreat, 
during which he died of the small pox at 
Chamblee. 

The veteran Colonel Joseph Frye, who had 
served in the war of 1756, was at the siege of 
Louisbourg, and taken prisoner in Fort Wil- 
liam Henry, immediately after the battle the 
S* 



178 APPENDIX. 

21st June, was appointed major-general by the 
Provincial Congress. He served some time in 
the revolutionary war, and lived to a very 
advanced age, at Fryeburgh, which received its 
name from his family. 

Colonel Gardner lived a few days after the 
battle, and on being asked if he was well 
enough to see his son ; " yes," answered the 
hero, " if he has done his duty." Being in- 
formed that he had distinguished himself, he 
saw him, and died with the glorious consolation 
of leaving the invaluai^ie legacy of his own 
fame and his country's gratitude to a son wor- 
thy to support the honours of his name. 

The brave Knowlton, from the first moment 
of the battle to the latest period of the retreat, 
showed' himself worthy the distinguished ho- 
nour of beino- selected as the first amons: the 
Connecticut captams. 

He afterwards received the commission of 
lieutenant-colonel, and at the battle of Haerlem 
Heights, was sent by Washington to attack the 
enemy's rear ; a bloody action ensued : Knowl- 
ton and his men fought the whole force of the 
enemy, of vastly superior numbers, before the 
Americans could attack in front, and got the 
better of them. He restored by this gallant af- 
fair a glorious moral force to the army nearly 
extinguished by disasters ; but it was at the 
expense of many brave men in the unequal 
contest ; his assistant officer, Major Leitch, was 
slain, with three balls through him, and he 



APPENDIX. lf9 

himself reaped immortal honour and immortal 
life together. 

Washington paid due honours to his memory, 
in general orders, and declared, " he had died 
a glorious death, which every soldier ought to 
wish for, and would have been an honour to 
any country on earth." 

The same indignation felt by Colonel Pres- 
cott, at the loss of the battle, was general in the 
army, and throughout the country; a scrutiny, 
most severe and unrelenting, was instituted 
into the conduct of every one, to bring condign 
punishment on those whose misconduct had 
caused the final issue. Even Colonel Bridge, 
notwithstanding the severity of his labours, and 
the dangerous and honourable wounds he re- 
ceived, had to pass the ordeal of a court mar- 
tial. 

Notwithstanding this inquisitorial research, 
we are happy to add, out of near three thou- 
sand, v/ho, at different stages of the battle, must 
have been engaged in it, and most of them for 
the first time, four only were discovered guilty 
of misconduct. Of these, Major Gridley was 
tried for neglect of duty, Brigadier-Genergd 
Green being president of the court, which "find 
him guilty of breach of orders, and therefore 
dismiss him from the Massachusetts service : 
but on account of his inexperience and youth, 
and the great confusion which attended that 
day's transaction in general, they do not con- 
sider him incapable of a Continental commis- 



180 APPENDIX. 

sion, should the general officers recommend 
him to his Excellency." 

Colonel Mansfield was obviously guilty of an 
error, arising only from inexperience. Two 
only were found guihy of cowardice ; of these 
Colonel Gerrish was certainly guilty of a want 
of military ardour and activity, but this was a 
constitutional defect. He was not accused be- 
fore the committee of Congress by General Put- 
nam, and, in the opinion of the very respectable 
judge advocate who tried him, he was far too 
harshly treated. 

The only officer apparently guilty of cow- 
ardice. Captain Callender, is a glorious instance 
of the buoyancy of real New England heroism, 
and the redeeming efficacy of a pure conscience, 
a mind conscious of rectitude. The furious de- 
nunciation of Putnam, the condeiraiation of the 
court, and thundering proscription of Washing- 
ton , would have crushed any one for ever, who 
was ar:i:ed with a panoply less divine. 

A committee of Congress was appointed to 
inquire into the truth of a report, that some of- 
ficers of the army had been guilty of miscon- 
duct ; they report, that they had made inquiry 
of General Putnam and other officers, who 
were in the hottest of the battle, and that the 
general charged Captain Callender and another 
artillery officer, with infamous cowardice, one 
of the principal causes of the defeat, and in- 
formed them that he would quit the service if 
tliese officers were not made an example of, 



APPENDIX. 181 

and that one of them ought to be shot. The 
court martial condemned Captain Callender, 
and General Washington approved the judg- 
ment, " not only from the particular guilt of 
Captain Callender, but the fatal consequence of 
such a conduct to the army, and to the cause 
of America in general." 

Notwithstanding this, our hero resolved to 
compel the world to acknowledge, by his future 
conduct, that his past had been mistaken. He 
continued with his corps as a volunteer, and 
desperately exposed himself in every action. 
The brave and beneficent General Knox ex- 
tended to him his friendship. 

At the batrie on Long Island, the captain and 
lieutenant of the company of artillery, with 
which he served, were shot ; he assumed the 
command, and fought the pieces to the last ; 
refused to retreat, and the bayonets of the sol- 
diers were just upon him, when a British offi- 
cer, admiring his chivalrous and desperate 
courage, interfered and saved his life. 

General Washington expressed his high ap- 
probation of his conduct, gave him his hand 
with his most cordial thanks : ordered the sen- 
tence of the court martial condemning him, to 
be erased from the orderly book, and restored to 
him his commission. He held his commission 
during the war, and left the service at the peace, 
with the highest honour and reputation. 

Captain Dearborn was afterwards highly 
distinguished during the revolutionary war^for 



182 APPENDIX. 

his bravery and enterprise. He volnnteered at 
the head of a company of men, selected from 
the regiment to accompany Arnold in the win- 
ter of 177'), throngh the trackless wilds, to 
Gtuebec ; an enterprise, which, in daring, hardi- 
hood, and conrage, is not snrpassed by the im- 
mortal passage of the Alps by Hannibal. He 
was major of a battalion of light infantry, at 
Saratoga, and his services were acknowledged 
by Gates, in the highest terms of approbation. 
Cilley's regiment, of which he was lientenant- 
colonel, was the most distingnished corps in 
the battle of Monmouth, and the salvation of 
the army was owing to their heroic courage. 
General Washington acknowledged the ser- 
vice, and sent to inquire what regiment it 
was. " Full blooded yankees, by .... sir," 
was the answer of Dearborn. He was after- 
wards secretary at war, appointed by Mr. Jef- 
ferson ; and during the last war was the first 
major-general and senior officer of the Ameri- 
can army. 

Porter, the promising artillerist, who stood by 
his piece and his captain to the last, has since 
then risen through every grade of office to the 
rank of brigadier-general in the arm^^, to which 
he has ever since belonged ; and has main- 
tained an uniform and distinguished reputation 
as one of the first artillery officers in service. 
The important post of Norfolk was intrusted to 
his command the last war, and he is now sta- 
tioned at Boston, in command of the very dis- 



APPENDIX. 183 

trict which he so bravely contributed to defend 
in 1775. 

Immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill, 
the rank of major-general was conferred on 
Colonel Gridley. 

America commenced her revolution with but 
four pieces of cannon, and to his mechanical 
science and ingenuity she was indebted for the 
first mortars and cannon ever cast in the coun- 
try. 

After being confined some months by his 
wound, he repaired to Cambridge, and super- 
intended the fortifications erecting round Bos- 
ton. On the 4th March, 1776, he was again 
engaged in erecting fortifications in the night, 
and the address, science, and prodigies of la- 
bour, displayed at Dorchester Heights, were 
perhaps never exceeded, except on Breed's 
Hill. These works expelled the enemy from 
Boston. General Gridley fortified the heights 
of this place and the islands in the harbour, 
and General Washington urged him to accom-^ 
pany the army, but his advanced age forbade. 
He retired on half pay. In 1795 he assisted in 
laying the corner stone of the state house, as he 
had in 1775 to lay the cornerstone of the state, 
and lived in remarkable health to the age of 
eighty-six, a model of courtliness, beneficence, 
and hospitality, as well as all the high perfec- 
tions of a soldier. 

Colonel Stark will be recognised as the hero 
of Bennington, but it is not so generally known 



184 



APPENDIX. 



that he employed an ingenious and successful 
expedient to strike a panic into the enemy, 
and assist him in achieving his glorious victory. 
He had one iron cannon, but neither powder 
sufficient to employ it, nor balls ; he ordered an 
officer, however, to charge it, who objected the 
want of balls ; "no matter," said the colonel, 
'•' load it with blank cartridge, and let the dis- 
charge be the signal for all the troops to rush 
on the enemy." The Hessians were panic- 
struck at the thundering report, his troops 
rushed on with loud hurras^ and the victory 
was complete. 

Honourable James Winthrop, and James 
Swan, Esquire, accompanied the re-enforcements 
to Breed's Hill, with their muskets, as volun- 
teers ; fought valiantly, and the former was 
wounded. 

But five days after the battle of Bunker Hill, 
General Ward writes Congress, that, unless en- 
listing orders be immediately furnished him, 
he shall be left entirely alone. The day before, 
however, that body resolved, that an army of 
thirty thousand was necessary, that Massachu- 
setts would raise thirteen thousand six hun- 
dred, and that the other New England states 
should have notice given them, and be re- 
quested to furnish their respective proportions. 
But the battle of Lexington was a beacon fire 
to the neighbouring states. The hardy yeo- 
men, whom rage supplied with arms, did not 
wait to be summoned by the tardy process of 



APPENDIX. 186 

leg-islation ; they seized their hunting pieces, 
and flew to join their brethren at the scene of 
danger. 

The Committee of Safety, elected anew by 
Congress at every session, were the real execu- 
tive of Massachusetts. The members were 
now John Hancock and Benjamin Greenleaf, 
who never took their seats, John Pigeon and 
Enoch Freeman, seldom present, and Joseph 
Warren, chairman, Benjamin Church, Benja- 
min White, Joseph Palmer, Abraham Watson, 
Samuel Holten, Azor Orne, Nathan Cushing, 
and Richard Devens. They were empowered 
generally to watch over the safety of the com- 
monwealth, and advise Congress of such mea- 
sures as they thought beneficial ; and expressly 
commissioned : 

" To assemble such and so many of the mi- 
litia, and them to dispose and place where and 
detain so long as said committee shall judge 
necessary, and discharge said militia when the 
safety of the colony will admit. And the offi- 
cers of the said militia are enjoined to obey the 
orders and directions of said Committee of Safe- 
ty. And also to direct the army of this colony 
to be stationed where said Committee of Safety 
shall judge most conducive to the defence and 
service of this colony; and the general and 
other officers of the army are requested to render 
strict obedience to such orders of said commit- 
tee ; but Congress have power to control any 
order of the Committee of Safety. Also to nomj- 



186 APPENDIX. 

nate persons to Congress to be commissioned of^ 
ficers in the army, and to give enlisting orders 
to such persons as they think proper. And if any 
officers be ready to be commissioned agreeable 
to the resolve of this Congress, during the re- 
cess of the same, the Committee shall fill up 
and deliver to them commissions to be furnished 
said Committee in blank for that purpose." 

This committee distributed beating or enlist- 
ing orders throughout the state to those whom 
they thought qualified to raise recruits. The 
number of a company was reduced from one 
hundred to fifty-nine ; and he who could enlist 
this number was entitled to a captain's com- 
mission, and one who procured ten captains 
with companies to serve under him commanded 
the regiment. The Congress of Massachusetts 
issued an eloquent address to the people, which 
would do honour to any legislature on earth. 
The recruits came in with spirit, and by the 
middle of June the New England army of citi- 
zen soldiers enlisted for a few months amounted 
to about fifteen thousand troops. 

About ten thousand of these were of Massa- 
chusetts ; animated witli the same love of liberty 
which inspired the whole, they were most con- 
fident in the rectitude of their cause, in which 
they were thoroughly instructed by James Otis, 
who led the forlorn hope of the revolution, 
John Adams, Q^uincy, Hancock, Samuel Adams, 
and other enlightened patriots. And they were 
fighting battles more peculiarly their own, in 



APPENDIX. • 187 

defence of their wives, children, and homes. 
But the more animating consideration to them 
as soldiers, was the chivalrous reputation of 
their ancestors and themselves, who had been 
in constant battle and constant victory against 
their formidable savage foe, and had more re- 
cently proved at Nova Scotia and Louisburgh 
that they were equally formidable against the 
civilized troops of Europe. 

The regiment of artillery was organized un- 
der Colonel Richard Gridley, Lieutenant-Co- 
lonel William Burbeck, Majors David Mason 
and Scarborough Gridley, and ten captains, 
with one six, two brass four, and six iron three 
pound cannon. 

Rhode Island had sent a regiment to Massa- 
chusetts, imbued with the determined spirit of 
civil and religious liberty, which the founder 
of their state maintained through every peril. 
Colonel Green was their commander, one of the 
most promising heroes of the revolution. The 
elements of a soldier were so mixed in him, 
that the wise already foresaw his elevated rank 
among warriors the most distinguished. Under 
him were Lieutenant-Colonel Olny and Major 
Boxan, experienced English soldiers. Two 
field pieces were attached to the corps. 

The hardy yeomanry of New Hampshire, 
beneath whose ponderous strokes the formida- 
ble forests, and the savages who inhabited them, 
had been levelled with the ground, who had 
been used to little control but what the God 



IbO APPENDIX* 

of Nature imposed, were moved with indigna- 
tion at approaching tyranny. They flocked as 
volunteers to the neighbourhood of Boston, and 
chose Colonel Stark, Lieutenant-Colonel Wy- 
man, and Major M' Clary, their leaders. 

Their colonel was worthy to command this 
formidable band ; he had been a distinguished 
captain of Provincial Rangers received into 
the service of the crown ; was at Cluebec, un- 
der General Wolfe, and enjoyed half pay, as a 
British ofiicer, an offering he made with other 
sacrifices, for the good of his country. 

Their major also was a favourite officer. 
Six feet and a half in height, with a Herculean 
form in perfect proportions, a voice like Sten- 
tor, and strength of Ajax ; ever unequalled in 
athletic exercises, and unsubdued in single 
combat; whole bodies of men had been over- 
come by him ; and he seemed totally uncon- 
scious that he was not equally unconquerable 
at the cannon's mouth. His mind and charac- 
ter were of the same grand and energetic cast 
with his person ; and though deficient in the 
advantages of finished education, he had been 
a member of the state legislature, and his mer- 
cantile concerns were extensive. 

These troops were followed by another regi- 
ment from New Hampshire, which arrived on 
the fifteenth of June, under Colonel Reed, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Oilman, and Major Hale. 

Connecticut, essentially and undeviatingly 
republican, was behind none of the provinces 



APPENDIX. l89 

in her determined hostility to the usurpation 
and encroachments of the throne. To her 
antipathy to royalty the proscribed judges of 
Charles the First had owed their inviolable 
asylum in her territory. Religious as well as 
civil liberty was in jeopardy, and the former 
with her was paramount to all earthly consider- 
ations. In her vocabulary the British troops 
were the Philistines, and Putnam, the American 
Samson, a chosen instrument to defeat the foe ; 
and fortunately she inspired her own confi- 
dence into all her sister states. 

With their usual sagacity, however, these 
troops, notwithstanding a confident reliance on 
supernatural aid, did not neglect all human 
means to secure it. Their state government, 
constitution, and establishments, continued un- 
changed. Their troops were better armed, bet- 
ter disciplined and provisioned, than any troops 
in the New England army. 

General Ward was a gentleman of liberal 
education, vigorous understanding, and distin- 
guished probity. He had been a member of 
the council, speaker of the assembly, and chief 
justice of one of the courts in Massachusetts. 
He professed the rigid tenets of New England 
religion, and his rank and character command- 
ed an extensive influence in tlie country. He 
had also served with reputation in the war of 
1756, was a lieutenant-colonel at the storming 
of Ticonderoga, under General Abercrombie, 
and soon after commanded the regimenf. He 



190 APPENDIX. 

had also been a colonel in the militia, an office 
from which Governor Hutchinson relieved him 
on account of his being too true a patriot. 

General Thomas received the appointment of 
lieutenant-general, which he accepted on the 
the 27th of May. His superior talents, culti- 
vated by a liberal education, his gallantry, ac- 
tivity, and vigilance as a soldier, purity as a 
patriot, and honour as a man, commanded the 
entire confidence of all who knew him. He 
had served in the former war with reputation, 
and had already distinguished himself in this. 
Being in command at Roxlxiry, with a feeble 
force, General Gage had determined to drive 
him from that important post. But his vigi- 
lance detected the design, and defeated it. 

On the day fixed for the attack, all his troops 
were paraded, marching them round the hill 
on which he was encamped, in vicAV of Boston, 
and returning those in front by a short rout 
again to the rear, they wore the appearance of 
a long column of troops. Being without uni- 
form, the deception was perfect, and General 
Gage, alarmed with the show of force, relin- 
quished the enterprise. 



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